Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it is in discussion with the South African government over Pretoria’s decision to introduce visa requirements for Malawians holding service passports.
Minister of Foreign Affairs George Chaponda in an interview yesterday said the Malawi High Commission in South Africa is leading the process.
But he said the Malawi Government is not in a position to divulge details of the discussions at the moment.
“We are not in a position to comment on the matter until we have finished discussions,” said Chaponda.
On Wednesday, the ministry announced that Malawi service passport holders will be required to apply for visa before travel to South Africa effective October 16 2025 while ordinar y and diplomatic passport holders are exempted.
Information on the Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services website indicates that service passports are issued to senior government officials from Grade H and above. The officers include di rectors, pr incipa l officers and heads of departments.
An Immigration Department source said applicants for service passports are required to present a letter from their ministries or departments confirming their employment status and grade.
The source indicated that the service passports ensure smooth travel for the officers when they are going to carry out official duties.
But the source said earlier this year some people presented themselves as government officials
and tried to apply for a service passport using forged letters purported to have been sourced from one of the ministries. The source said the applications were rejected.
Immig ration Department national spokesperson Pasqually Zulu said he was in a meeting and did not pick up subsequent calls.
Meanwhile, political and international relations analyst Chimwemwe Tsitsi said the requirement for visas for service passpor ts, w hi le exempting ordinary passports, is surprising as one would have expected the opposite.
“But it is normal for countries to require travellers to have proper documents and be subjected to further scrutiny before travelling to that country,” he said.
In its review of entry restrictions, South Africa has also reduced the period of stay without visa from 90 days to 30 days.
The Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services is on record to have indicated that 4 912 Malawians were deported from South Africa between January and June this year.
South Af r ica’s restr ictions come on the back of even tougher migration rules for Malawians into the United States (US).
In August this year, the US introduced a policy requiring travellers from Malawi and Zambia to pay visa bonds ranging from $5 000 (about K8.7 million) to $15 000 (about K26 million) following concerns of overstays and fears of compromised security of the Malawi passport.
