SOUTH AFRICAN travellers are
no longer required to have their
biometrics captured when flying in
and out of South African airports.
Minister of Home Affairs, Malusi
Gigaba, announced that the recent
roll-out of the biometric system for all
passengers, creating up to three-hour
delays for both outbound and inbound
travellers, had been updated. “As
soon as the system reads a South
African passport it now picks up that
biometrics are not needed,” he said.
Minister Gigaba said that, during the
roll-out of the system, it came to the
attention of the Department of Home
Affairs that there were not sufficient
personnel to process the movement of
all passengers with biometrics.
He also said that the processing of
South African travellers’ biometrics had
been an oversight as the information
was superfluous because it was already
contained in their ID documents.
According to the Minister, the system
is now running smoothly and travellers
are no longer experiencing delays.
The department is, however, advising
travellers to proceed through security
gates as soon as they have checked
in for their flight, in order to avoid
congestion at immigration counters.
