Originally Posted by
Productivity
It's hard to claim a direct transit when neither ticket has anything to do with the other. Say your flight into JNB was delayed excessively, going either way, the subsequent carrier is under no obligation to do anything other than treat your ticket as a forfeit for no show. To me it is very hard to call it a direct transit under those circumstances, even if some airline staff did help you out.
Three different issues are being conflated:
1. Through ticket to destination v. separate tickets with sufficient same-day time to change flights
2. Bag checked to destination on separate ticket v. bag checked only to final ticketed city
3. Documentation for entry into destination and for all transit points v. documentation for entry only into final ticketed city
Here, you are describing a problem with issue 1, though it is issue 3 that matters.
No one is suggesting that, if the AF flight was delayed, SA would have an obligation to do anything other than treat the ticket as a forfeit for no show.
But OP and family would still legally have entered "the international transit area of the airport," and AF's responsibility for their further travels will have ended. It is unheard of for the South African government to require AF to return passengers to Paris in that circumstance, and AF must (or should) know that.
http://visados.com/en/visa-for-South-Africa