Busy Easter weekend at SA's ports of entry

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Pretoria - It was a busy Easter weekend at the country's ports of entry, with 634 914 travellers passing through them, according to Home Affairs Movement Control System.

From 5 - 9 April, 353 243 people arrived at the ports of entry. There were 281 671 departures.

Home Affairs Director-General Mkuseli Apleni said on Thursday that 355 670 of these travellers were from the continent, with 75 419 from the rest of the world.

"We further processed the movements of 221 465 South African citizens, of which 120 857 were arrivals and 100 608 were departures. African countries from which we received the largest number of visitors were: Lesotho (117 274), Zimbabwe (69 571), Swaziland (58 021), Mozambique (45 429) and Botswana (39 759)," he said.

In anticipation of these traveller volumes, the department extended operating hours at some ports of entry in Mpumalanga, Limpopo, Free State and Eastern Cape - and deployed 200 additional immigration officers.

"We are pleased to announce that these measures have enabled travellers over the Easter weekend to indeed receive quality services without any undue interruptions or delays through our ports of entry," Apleni said.