The Border Management Authority is the agency responsible for border law enforcement in South Africa and for running the ports of entry. It publishes one head office number and one mailbox. Before calling, it is worth knowing what the BMA actually does, because the most common reason people reach it is a question it cannot answer: the BMA manages the ports themselves rather than issuing the documents you present at them.
Official contact channels
- Head office: 012 065 1147
- General enquiries: [email protected]
- Head office address: 67 Koranna Avenue, Centurion
- Written enquiries: the contact form on the BMA website
- Reporting suspicious activity: the dedicated reporting route published on the BMA site
No per-port numbers and no provincial or regional offices are published anywhere on the site. The head office number is the single published telephone route into the authority, which means a query about a specific border post still starts in Centurion.
What this organisation provides
The BMA was established under the Border Management Authority Act of 2020 and carries responsibility for border law enforcement and the management of ports of entry. The scale it publishes gives a sense of what that covers:
- 71 ports of entry in total
- 11 international airports
- 51 land ports
- 9 maritime ports
The distinction that saves most callers a wasted enquiry is the one between the BMA and the Department of Home Affairs. The BMA does not issue passports, visas, permits or identity documents. Those are Home Affairs functions, and an immigration, permit or visa question belongs there rather than here. Put simply, the BMA is who you encounter at the border, and Home Affairs is who decides what you are entitled to present when you get there. If your question is about a document, call the Home Affairs contact centre on 0800 60 11 90 or write to [email protected] instead.
The authority also publishes its founding and governance material openly: the BMA Act itself, an operationalisation fact sheet, the governance framework, the strategic plan, the annual performance plan and the annual report, alongside a PAIA manual, tenders and an e-recruitment section. Anyone dealing with the BMA formally is better served quoting those documents than describing a situation in general terms.
Address and operating information
Head office is at 67 Koranna Avenue, Centurion. No operating hours are published for the office or for the telephone line.
Port operating hours are a separate matter entirely and are not published centrally. They vary considerably by port, since a major international airport and a small land border post do not keep the same hours, and some land ports close overnight. Head office cannot change a port operating time or open one early, so confirm hours for the specific crossing you intend to use before travelling rather than assuming they run continuously.
Support and escalation routes
Use [email protected] or the contact form for general enquiries, and put anything substantive in writing so there is a record of the date it was raised.
The reporting route matters more than the general one for the things the BMA most needs to hear about. Suspected smuggling, trafficking, or corruption by officials at a port of entry goes through the report suspicious activity channel rather than through a general enquiry, and reporting it there puts it in front of the enforcement side of the authority rather than an administrative mailbox.
Other matters route elsewhere by design. Employment enquiries go through e-recruitment, procurement and supplier matters through tenders, and requests for records under access to information legislation through the published PAIA manual. Where the complaint concerns maladministration by a public body rather than a border incident, the Public Protector investigates conduct in state administration and sits outside the authority entirely.
Sources
- bma.gov.za contact block, for the head office telephone number, the enquiries mailbox and the Centurion address
- bma.gov.za site content, for the ports of entry totals and the published governance and legislative documents
- dha.gov.za, for the Home Affairs contact centre given as the correct route for document and immigration queries
All contact details on this page were read from the authority own website and verified on 2 September 2026.