Of the 456 423 foreigners who entered the country since the beginning of June, 21 were denied permission to stay, Home Affairs Deputy Minister Malusi Gigaba said on Tuesday.
Briefing the media in Pretoria, Gigaba said the 21 denied entry onto planes or stopped at customs on arrival, had travel documents not in order or were on a visa and entry stoplist. They included one English and 14 Argentinian soccer hooligans.
Gigaba said in the 24 hours up to 4pm on Monday another 5 000 travellers — 61 Fifa-accredited delegates and 4 939 spectators — arrived for the World Cup.
He said from June 1 to 13 a total of 6 933 contraventions were identified. These included individuals over-staying their visits, temporary residence permit abuses and passports being flagged as lost or stolen.
He said 79 travellers were also prevented from boarding flights to South Africa in connection with fraudulent documents.
While it was not immediately known where the citizens were originally from, the airports they attempted to pass through were mostly in European countries, and a few Asian ones.
Responding to questions on strict control of people moving across South Africa’s borders with its neighbours, Gigaba said this was not being done to be “unfair”.
“We were afraid that the SA/Lesotho border gates may be abused,” he said, adding that strict controls had always been in place.
“We are not going to relax the rules when the World Cup finishes.” –Sapa