Over 4.9m travellers facilitated across South Africa’s 71 ports of entry during the 2025/2026 festive period

The Border Management Authority recently briefed the media on the 2025/26 festive season operations successes, detailing the impact of the departure leg and return leg of the operations. The briefing was led by Home Affairs minister, Leon Schreiber and BMA Commissioner, Michael Masiapato.

Schreiber says the BMA saw a significant decrease in the number of illegal border crossing.  The minister says 84% of travelers during the festive period was facilitated at the top 10 busiest port of entry. OR Tambo international Airport, Lebombo and Beitbridge border post

BMA Commissioner, Michael Masiapato, says the BMA recorded about 4.9 million travellers across South Africa’s 71 ports of entry during the 2025/2026 festive period. Of the total travellers facilitated, about 1.3 million were South African nationals, while approximately 3.5 million were foreign nationals.

“In facilitating this movement, we processed about 340 876 private vehicles, 9 072 mini-bus taxis, and 10 349 buses through our land modality. On air modality, we processed about 7 787 aircrafts while about 243 vessels were processed through our sea modality," the Commissioner said.

PICTURED - BMA: Michael Masiapato

Masiapato says during the festive operations, Border Guards detected and intercepted about 26 852 individuals attempting to enter South Africa illegally. Of these, about 22 153 were undocumented, 2 353 were declared undesirable due to overstaying, and 2 346 were found inadmissible because of invalid passports, fraudulent visas or lack of yellow fever certificates.

The commissioner noted a significant decline of 46% in attempted illegal entries compared to the 58 394 recorded during the 2024/2025 festive season, attributing the reduction largely to the deterrent effect of drone deployment in the border environment.

 

Done By: Mitchum George