Pretoria - South African travellers will pay higher fees for new passports first time in 11 years, starting in November this year, says Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi.
The amended fees, which are above 50% or more of the current passport prices, would come into effect on November 1, 2022, the minister said on Monday.
The changes to passport and emergency travel certificate fees were informed by the outcome of a bench-marking exercise with other countries which found that South African tariffs were up to three times lower, Motsoaledi said.
The decision was also informed by the fact that production costs were much higher than what the travellers would be paying for their passports, he added.
There are different fees for applications made in South Africa and those coming from its diplomatic missions abroad, he explained.
A South African passport or travel document, applied for in the country, will be raised from R400 to about R600 per 32-page document.
For a 48-page passport, the traveller would have to dish out about R1 200, he said.
Fees payable in respect of applications for a South African passport made outside the country from the country’s diplomatic posts were R1 200 for a 32-page book and R2 300 for a 48-page travel document, the minister said.
However, an emergency travel certificate which is given to travellers who are stranded abroad would cost R145 a copy, and it was for one-off use.
“There is no emergency travel certificate for South Africans who need to travel abroad, however,” Motsoaledi said.
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