Originally Posted by
ATOBTTR
Without an official response from AF (or DL) or the exact wording of South African immigration/transit policies for this situation all any of us can do is speculate.
An official response from AF or DL is not an equivalent to government practice and policy. As I've indicated above, airline policies and practices to try to mitigate for some risks of international transport or passengers are sometimes found to be in violation by the governmental authorities.
The exact wording from the South African government is needed? Given:
. practice over time gravitates toward policy and become policy's exemplification over the longer term; and
. South Africa has allowed for transit conditions' document requirements to be different than entry conditions' document requirements; and
. South Africa has allowed for international transit that doesn't require being admitted into South Africa; and
. South Africa has a relatively open society where government policies and practices in this regard are not beyond public discovery and scrutiny,
not sure what there is to speculate about South Africa's instituted policy as embodied by practice with regard to the allowance for transit conditions to be different than the allowance for entry conditions. And given what the OP and many, many others have already accomplished via JNB, this kind of transit seems to be something the government hasn't actively frustrated; it doesn't seem to have even passively frustrated it. Instead, it seems to have explicitly decided it wants such business.