South Africa denied me entry due to an expired visa, it allowed Europeans to enter

BUA Group founder and chief executive Abdul Samad Rabiu has told how he was denied entry to South Africa after his visa expired just a day before his arrival, while European travelers were reportedly allowed to enter the country without a visa.

Rabiu shared the experience on Thursday during his presentation titled “Africa at Scale: Capital, Politics and Growth Architecture” at the ongoing Africa CEO Forum held in Kigali, Rwanda.

The businessman said the incident occurred in February 2025 while he was traveling from Lagos to Cape Town for the Mining Indaba, only to be turned away at immigration after officials discovered his visa had expired.

According to him, the oversight left him stranded for hours at the airport before he was finally flown back to Lagos.

He said that while he and his team experienced delays due to visa issues, passengers arriving on several flights from Europe were allowed to enter South Africa without visas.

“I had a personal experience. Last year, in February, I was traveling to Cape Town for the Indaba mine. And when we landed, I left at night from Lagos to Cape Town. We arrived at 6 in the morning,” he said.

“When we arrived, we went to immigration. I presented my passport, and the immigration officer looked at it and asked me, where is your visa, and I said, “My visa is there.” Unbeknownst to me, my visa had expired the day before.

“Unfortunately, our crew did not check the visa to make sure it was valid. We were there for four hours, but at the end of the day I had to turn back. I was taken back to Lagos.

“But the problem is, while we were waiting to see if we would be able to access the countries without a visa, there were about three international flights from Europe. All three flights were mostly European.

“I was there at the immigration desk and all the passengers on those three flights entered Cape Town without visas.”

The BUA chief stressed that while he accepted responsibility for the expired visa, the experience reflected the broader challenges facing Africans in Africa, saying: “I have no problem with the fact that I was there without a visa and was repatriated. I took full responsibility for that.”

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“I had problems with being African in Africa, being turned away because I didn’t have a visa and foreigners from other continents coming in and being able to come in without a visa. This needs to change.” [The Guardian]

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