{"id":863389,"date":"2026-06-11T14:07:06","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T12:07:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=863389"},"modified":"2026-06-11T14:07:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T12:07:09","slug":"bad-news-for-anyone-with-a-south-african-passport-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/863389\/bad-news-for-anyone-with-a-south-african-passport-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad news for anyone with a South African passport"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa’s passport has continued to slip in the global power rankings, losing easy access to one more international country in the 2026 Arton Capital Passport Index.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the index, South Africa has a passport power score of 109 in 2026, down from 110 in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The index tracks the passport power of 199 documents, representing 193 United Nations member countries and 6 territories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The power score is based on the number of countries that allow visa-free, visa-on-arrival, or electronic travel authorisation (ETA) travel on a passport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The methodology is similar to the Henley & Partners Passport Index, which is built using data from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Henley & Partners index gave South Africa a 2026 score of 100, as six countries downgraded it from visa-free or visa-on-arrival status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These include Mauritania, Somalia, and Nigeria in Africa, Pakistan in Asia, Kosovo in Europe, and the Falkland Islands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Arton Capital’s methodology differs slightly in its approach to destination tracking, particularly in excluding annexed territories.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Arton Capital Index, the main change is the loss of Visa Prior Approval (VPA) access to Pakistan, which accounts for the drop from 89 to 88 easy-access countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conversely, in May, Togo became the sixth African country to grant visa-free entry to all holders of African passports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While this increases the number of fully visa-free countries for South Africa, the Arton Capital Index already considered Togo’s previous eVisa requirements in the passport power score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similarly, the shift from visa-on-arrival to eVisas for Sri Lanka, and the recent ETA launched for Ghana<\/strong><\/a> had no impact on the final power score.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The table below outlines the main changes for South Africa in the Arton Capital Passport Index for 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Changes from 2025 to 2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Country<\/th>2025<\/th>2026<\/th>Score impact<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Sri Lanka<\/td>Visa-on-arrival<\/td>eVisa<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>No change<\/td><\/tr>
Ghana<\/td>Visa-free<\/td>ETA<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>No change<\/td><\/tr>
Togo<\/td>eVisa<\/td>Visa-free<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>No change<\/td><\/tr>
Pakistan<\/td>eVisa (VPA)<\/td>eVisa<\/strong><\/mark><\/td>-1<\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite the loss of Pakistan, South Africans still enjoy relatively broad access, particularly across Africa, South America, and parts of Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Popular leisure destinations such as Mauritius, Thailand, and Brazil remain visa-free, making them attractive options for holidaymakers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several important business and transit hubs, including Singapore, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, also continue to allow South Africans to enter without a visa, provided they use ETAs or eVisas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another differentiator of the Arton Capital Index is its tracking of how open countries are to other passports, as reflected in its “Welcoming Ranking”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This ranks countries by how many passports they accept visa-free, with a visa-on-arrival or with an ETA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South Africa ranks as relatively closed off, welcoming only 93 passports with ease, or around 47% of the countries ranked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa’s passport has continued to slip in the global power rankings, losing easy access to one more international country in the 2026 Arton Capital Passport Index.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":708392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[11095,25579],"class_list":["post-863389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-arton-capital","tag-passport-index"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863389"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":863397,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863389\/revisions\/863397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/708392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}