Yasiin Bey was arrested in January in Cape Town after he attempted to use a World Government of World Citizens passport or “world passport” to leave the country.
Home Affairs has accepted an apology from American rapper Dante Terrell Smith — popularly known as Yasiin Bey or Mos Def — after he attempted to leave South Africa without a valid passport. Smith will leave the country on Tuesday evening after being declared an “undesirable person” in terms of Section 30 of the Immigration Act.
The director general of home affairs, Mkuseli Apleni, said that Smith had admitted he was wrong to use what he called a “world passport” to travel from South Africa, and he would be using his United States passport to leave the country.
“His apology is to say it is wrong for him to travel with a world passport which is not recognised. He should have travelled with a US passport, as he will be doing so,” Apleni said.
The rapper had entered South Africa on more than five occasions using a US passport. As a US citizen he is legally required to use his US passport when travelling.
“For him to go and get a world passport is something which we do not recognise,” Apleni said.
Smith was arrested in January in Cape Town after he attempted to use a World Government of World Citizens passport or “world passport” to leave the country, despite having entered South Africa with a US passport. Although his visitor visa had expired in February, his family’s visa had reportedly expired in 2014. He was accused of helping his family to remain in the country illegally.
Because the world passport is not recognised n South Africa, home affairs said Smith had contravened Immigration Regulation 2 (4) of the Immigration Act. He was charged with using fraudulent travel documents. Shortly after his arrest, Smith released a voice recording on fellow US rapper Kanye West’s website, in which he reacted to home affairs by saying there would be “no more parties in SA”.
“I am currently in Cape Town, South Africa, and I am being prevented from leaving the country,” Smith said in the recording. “Everyone can do the research on the World Passport; it is not fictitious.”
The World Government of World Citizens distributes the world passport through its administrative arm, the World Service Authority. The organisation claims that the bearer of a world passport is a global citizen whose rights are protected by the United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
But neither the US nor South Africa accepts the world passport as a valid form of travel documentation.
Apleni said on Tuesday that the charges would be withdrawn on Friday following Smith’s apology and his decision to leave South Africa.