There is no Mozambican home affairs office in South Africa. Mozambique civil documents are issued by its own government in Mozambique, and the only Mozambican authority on South African soil is the High Commission in Pretoria and the consulates it runs. South Africa Department of Home Affairs cannot issue, renew or verify a Mozambican document.
Official contact channels
- High Commission of the Republic of Mozambique, Pretoria: 012 401 0300
- Fax: 012 326 6388
- Address: 529 Edmund Street, Arcadia, Pretoria
- Postal address: PO Box 40750, Arcadia, 0007
- The High Commission also runs consulates in other South African cities. Ask the Pretoria number which one covers your province rather than relying on a listing found elsewhere
If you are a Mozambican national in South Africa
- Passports, national identity documents and birth, marriage and death certificates are Mozambican documents. Apply through the High Commission or a consulate, not through a South African office
- The High Commission works by appointment. Phone before travelling to Pretoria, because document services are usually run on set days rather than daily
- Take originals plus copies of everything, and expect to need a Mozambican identity document or an old passport to establish who you are
- A South African visa, permit or asylum matter is the opposite direction: that is South African Home Affairs, on 0800 60 11 90, and the High Commission cannot help with it
If you are travelling to Mozambique
- Visa requirements, entry conditions and document legalisation for travel to Mozambique are set by Mozambique, and the High Commission is the authority on them
- Ask specifically whether your purpose of travel needs a visa in advance or is issued on arrival, because that has changed more than once and third-party travel sites lag behind
- For a child travelling, ask about the documents required on the Mozambican side as well as the South African ones. The two sets are not the same
- Vehicle paperwork for a self-drive trip, including the third-party insurance bought at the border, is a separate requirement from your own documents
If something goes wrong
- A dispute about a Mozambican document or a decision by the High Commission is a Mozambican matter. It escalates within the Mozambican government, not to any South African body
- South African bodies such as the Public Protector and the South African Human Rights Commission have no jurisdiction over a foreign mission
- If you are a South African who has been treated badly by a foreign mission, the route is the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, on 012 351 1000
- Never pay a fee to an agent or a fixer outside the High Commission. Official fees are payable to the mission itself and it will issue a receipt
Sources
- South African Government official contact directory, foreign representatives listing for the Mozambique High Commission, for the telephone number, fax number, Edmund Street address and Arcadia postal address
- South African Department of Home Affairs published contact centre number, for the South African side of the distinction described above
- Department of International Relations and Cooperation published switchboard number