Johannesburg, April 28 (IANS) A total of 1,057,063 people passed through South Africa’s ports of entry during the 2025 Easter period, marking an eight per cent increase from the 2024 figures, a government official said on Monday.
Michael Masiapato, Commissioner of the Border Management Authority (BMA), released the figures in Pretoria, the country’s administrative capital, during a media briefing, noting that 974,729 individuals passed through the country’s 71 ports of entry in 2024.
According to the commissioner, the authority managed to smoothly process the travelers during the period from April 15 to 24.
“This upward trend highlights the growing demand for cross-border travel in the post-Covid period. Despite the high volumes of travelers across all the three modalities of air, land, and sea, all measures and contingency plans implemented by the BMA and its stakeholders effectively managed the flow, ensuring operational stability and traveler safety throughout the entire Easter period,” said Masiapato.
The Commissioner also noted that the BMA intercepted and arrested more than 6,000 people who attempted to enter the country without the required documents during the recent Easter holidays.
“Just in a period of 10 days, we have been able to intercept and apprehend a total of 6,253 persons who were attempting to either enter or exit South Africa illegally,” he said, Xinhua news agency reported. “This is an increase of 61 per cent compared to the 2024 Easter interception of 3,841.”
Masiapato attributed the rise in interceptions in the use of technology at some border gates, which included the use of drones.
“Out of these 6,253, about 4,795 were undocumented, about 1,055 were undesirable, and 403 were found to be inadmissible for various reasons, such as fraudulent visas, failure to produce a yellow fever certificate,” he said.
Masiapato added that all those who were arrested while trying to enter the country illegally had their fingerprints taken, were declared undesirable for five years, and deported to their countries.
–IANS
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