Originally Posted by
catandmouse
Does anyone know why the South African authorities insist on your passport having 3 empty, consecutive pages when you enter the country? All the stickers and stamps they put into the passport don't take up more than half a page.
Yet as I was travelling there recently, at each point that my passport was checked during the trip, there was real paranoia about the empty pages.
Don't know, but DO know that if you don't have sufficient pages you're in for a nasty time. My wife was detained at JNB and sent up to the immigration office (quite full of under-documented persons from Nigeria, China, et al at 7 AM) where we endured two hours of serious **** before they grudgingly allowed her in. Not fun. Amazingly, our luggage was undisturbed on the floor of the (old) bag claim area.