It is a moment of rare and refreshing candour when a government official admits that his own country has made itself look like a pack of fools. South Africa’s minister of home affairs, Aaron Motsoaledi, has done just that. In a parliamentary grilling, he acknowledged that the visa chaos surrounding the 2023 Rugby World Cup has left the nation internationally humiliated. The British visa system, by contrast, was held up as a model of efficiency and competence. One could almost hear the collective sigh of relief from Pretoria: thank God for the English, again.
Let us be clear about what happened. South Africa, a country with pretensions to being a continental powerhouse, could not issue visas in time for fans, journalists, and even players. The World Cup, that great festival of globalised sport, became a testament to the incapacity of a state that has been in decline for decades. And who stepped in to salvage the mess? The United Kingdom, with its ironclad bureaucracy and unwavering commitment to process. The Home Office, that much-maligned institution, suddenly looked like the Prussian civil service.
This is not an isolated incident. It is a symptom of a deeper rot: the collapse of administrative competence in post-colonial states. South Africa is not alone. Look at the shambles of India’s bureaucracy, the cronyism of Brazil’s visa system, the sheer chaos of Nigeria’s passport offices. These are nations that cannot manage the basic functions of a modern state. Meanwhile, the West, for all its alleged decadence, continues to hum along, processing applications with deadly efficiency.
But why does this matter? It matters because the ability to regulate movement across borders is the sine qua non of sovereignty. A state that cannot control its own borders is not a state at all. It is a geographic expression. And when that state is weak, it invites exploitation from criminal networks, human traffickers, and foreign powers. The South African fiasco is a canary in the coal mine for the entire continent.
Some will argue that this is unfair, that the West had centuries to perfect its systems while post-colonial states are still finding their feet. To which I say: nonsense. Botswana, a country that gained independence in 1966, has a far more efficient visa system than South Africa. So does Mauritius. The problem is not time. It is culture, it is corruption, it is a lack of political will.
The South African minister’s admission is a rare moment of honesty. Let us not waste it. Instead of blaming colonialism or global inequality, let us hold these governments accountable. And let us recognise that when it comes to the bedrock of state capacity, the West still has something to teach the world.
