South Africa’s “green mamba” passport has broken into the top 50 in the world for the first time in a decade, by improving from 53rd in the world in 2024 to 48th at the beginning of 2025.
This is according to the latest Henley Passport Index, which includes an authoritative global ranking on the power of the passports of different countries.
The index shows that the ranking of passport strength increased by 10% between 2024 and 2025.
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber has welcomed the latest index.
“The relative improvement in the strength of the South African
passport is only the beginning, as it coincides with the reform process that is underway at Home Affairs, which is built around the digital transformation of all Home Affairs processes.
By fully digitalising and closing off to fraud and manipulation the process to obtain enabling documents, including passports, we will significantly enhance the integrity of our documents,” said Schreiber.
Moreover, Schreiber said this milestone also emphasises the global shift towards digitalising visa processes, which is a critical component of the department reforms.
“Additionally, the targets proposed by Home Affairs for inclusion in the Medium-Term Development Plan (MTDP) that will guide the work of the seventh administration, includes the introduction of biometric or “e-Passports,” that feature an embedded microprocessor chip to authenticate the biometric
information of all South African travellers.
Our plans to introduce an e-Passport and to digitally
secure both document and passport processes for South Africans as well as visa processes for foreigners, will combine to meaningfully increase the power of our passport over the coming years,” explained Scheiber.
