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His Excellency Jeremiah Nyamane Mamabolo travels to present his credentials to The Court of St James

2023-03-06T20:46:18+00:001 November 2022|News|

Important: Passport Notice

Important developments at the Home Affairs Section of the South African High Commission in London

We are pleased to inform you that the Department of Home Affairs has outsourced passport services to VFS Global with effect from 01 June 2022. Please book your appointment on the link below:

https://passport.vfsglobal.com/ppt/en/zaf

The following services will still be rendered at the High Commission by appointment:

1. Notice of birth/ birth registration

2. 1st ID book and ID book replacement (Smart ID Cards are only issued in South Africa)

3. 1st Adult passport i.e. 15 1/2 year olds who have never been issued with an ID book/Smart Card.

4. Amendments i.e. Change of forenames / Change of Surname (NOT due to marriage or divorce).

5. Emergency Travel Certificate

6. Death registration

7. Consent for minor passport applications (For parents in different countries)

The following services are rendered strictly by post:

1. Retention of South African citizenship.

2. Renunciation of South African citizenship.

3. Determination of citizenship status

2022-08-02T21:40:59+01:002 June 2022|News|

Memorial Service for Lord Bob Hughes held at South Africa House

A memorial service for Lord Bob Hughes of Woodside, former Chair of the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) from 1976 to 1995, was held at South Africa House last night, organised by ACTSA, the successor body to the AAM.

2023-03-06T20:49:54+00:0027 April 2022|News|

SS Mendi 105th Anniversary in Portsmouth

The South African High Commission, led by Deputy High Commissioner Charmaine Fredericks, participated in the SS Mendi 105th Anniversary in Portsmouth on 21 February 2022.

The sinking of the SS Mendi was caused by the reckless action of the captain of the SS Darro. It remains the greatest ever wartime disaster suffered by South Africa. During the First World War, there was a shortage of labourers, which, despite the draft, caused delays in moving supplies from the rear to the front lines. SS Mendi was transporting 823 men and officers of the fifth Battalion of the Native Labour Corps from Cape Town to Le Havre, via Lagos and Plymouth.

On 21 February 1917, a large cargo steamship, Darro, collided with the SS Mendi in the English Channel south of the Isle of Wight. Mendi sank killing 646 people, most of whom were black South African troops.

This tragedy is commemorated every year on 21 February.

2022-02-23T00:03:39+00:0021 February 2022|News|

Video Tribute to Ambassador Lindiwe Mabuza

Featuring: HE Nomatemba Tambo, The Rt Hon the Lord David Steel of Aikwood, Richard Stone, The Rt Hon the Lord Paul & Lady Janet Boateng, Teddy Coleman, John Battersby, Lela Kogbara, Brian Filling, Zeinab Badawi, Tony Dykes, The Rt Hon the Lord Peter Hain, Anne Page & Adam Glasser. Archive performances from: Tessa Uys, Sir Antony Sher, Dame Janet Suzman, Pumeza Matshikiza & Nicola Emmanuelle.

2022-02-22T03:23:45+00:0021 February 2022|News|

Memorial Service for Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and Ambassador Lindiwe Mabuza

A Memorial Service for Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and Ambassador Lindiwe Mabuza will be held at St Martin-in-the-Fields (Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 4JH) on Monday 21 February, 2.00 pm.

The service, which is being organised with the South African High Commission, will include tributes to the Archbishop Emeritus and the Ambassador from those who knew them, an Address from Revd Dr Sam Wells, Vicar of St Martin-in-the-Fields, personal memories from Clive Conway, Chair of Tutu Foundation UK, Professor Chris Mullard, Honorary Consul, and music from St Martin’s Voices. Refreshments at South Africa House will follow the service.

2022-02-23T00:04:10+00:0021 February 2022|News|

South Africa House mourns the loss of Ambassador Lindiwe Mabuza

News of the passing of Ambassador Lindiwe Mabuza, who was the South African High Commissioner to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from 2001 to 2010, has been greeted with great sadness by all at South Africa House.

Family spokespersons, Mavuso Msimang and Lindiwe Sangweni-Siddo, announced yesterday afternoon that Ambassador Lindiwe Mabuza had “passed away peacefully this afternoon, Monday 06 December 2021, in the loving company of her family.”

We extend our deepest condolences to her family and to her numerous friends and colleagues in South Africa, the UK, and around the world. She will be fondly remembered and deeply missed.

Dr Lindiwe Mabuza was appointed High Commissioner to the UK by President Thabo Mbeki in 2001, having already served as Ambassador to Germany and to Malaysia and The Philippines, and prior to that as an MP in President Nelson Mandela’s first government in 1994. Her diplomatic career began in 1979 when Oliver Tambo appointed her as the ANC’s representative to Scandinavia, where she survived a bomb attack on the ANC offices in Stockholm, before being transferred to the USA where she opened an ANC office in Washington DC.  Long before coming to the UK, Ambassador Mabuza had established a reputation as a distinguished and formidable diplomat whose passion for her country, its people, culture and economic transformation, shone brightly.

During her double tenure as South African High Commissioner to the UK Ambassador Mabuza was responsible for many notable achievements, too numerous to list comprehensively, but some prominent highlights include the Solidarity Conference in 2003, which brought together 1,300 delegates and a third of the South African cabinet over a weekend at the QEII Conference Centre in Westminster, to account for the new South African Government’s first decade in office and to look forward to the decade ahead.

2004 marked the 10th Anniversary of the first democratic elections in South Africa, during which Ambassador Mabuza organised numerous events around the UK with various stakeholders, including a special commemorative service at St Paul’s Cathedral addressed by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and the “Unity Gala” – a concert featuring the London Symphony Orchestra and the KwaZulu-Natal Philharmonic Orchestra held at the Barbican in November 2004.

Freedom Day itself was marked with a concert in Trafalgar Square, organised with the then Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone.

In August 2004, Ambassador Mabuza arranged with the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Lesley Hinds, to take a massive South African contingent to a special Edinburgh Festival event in Princess Street Gardens, called “South Africa in the Gardens” . This featured the South African Navy Band, the Soweto Gospel Choir, and headlined South African jazz musicians Caiphus Semenya and Letta Mbulu.

Several other major conferences followed, including the South African Sports and Investment Conference held at Chelsea Football Club in April 2006 and the African Union-Caribbean Diaspora Conference held in London in April 2007.

Ambassador Mabuza was the driving force behind the 2007 publishing of “Oliver Tambo Remembered”, a compilation of recollections of the late Oliver Reginald Tambo by prominent public figures who engaged with him internationally. She worked with Haringey Council to unveil a bust and memorial garden dedicated to Oliver Tambo, close to his former residence in Muswell Hill, where his family lived in exile and where our current High Commissioner, Ms Nomatemba Tambo, was raised as a child.

In the same year, she also worked with the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to give proper recognition to the 650 sailors and members of the South African Native Labour Corps who perished on the SS Mendi when it went down off the coast of the Isle of Wight in 1917.

In 2008, Ambassador Mabuza was deeply saddened by the passing of Mike Terry, a close personal friend and former Secretary General of the Anti-Apartheid Movement in the UK, who had helped her with numerous projects up to that point in time. To honour his memory and acknowledge his enormous contribution to South Africa, she organised a memorial for him at South Africa House, attended by 300 people along with members of his family, dignitaries, friends and colleagues dating back to his student years.

Also in 2008, she hosted a dinner at South Africa House in honour of President Thabo and Mrs Zanele Mbeki.

Throughout her tenure Ambassador Mabuza supported many charities, often making South Africa House available for free for them to host events, dinners and exhibitions. She was an ardent supporter of the Phelophepa Health Train, for which she helped to organise annual fundraising gala dinners. She loved Ardmore Ceramics, maintaining a healthy personal collection, and enthusiastically supported Action for Southern Africa, Community HEART, the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, and many other charities benefiting South Africa.

Ambassador Lindiwe Mabuza was also a prolific author and poet, publishing many books and anthologies of both her own work, and compilations like Oliver Tambo Remembered, to preserve an historic record of people she greatly admired for future generations. She also hosted a large number of book launches at South Africa House, including, amongst others, The State vsNelson Mandela: The Trial that Changed South Africa by Joel Joffe, and The Mission: A Life for Freedom in South Africa by Denis Goldberg.

She was passionate about culture in all forms, but especially music, and she regularly organised concerts featuring South African artists living in or visiting London. She assisted Pumeza Matshikiza and the late Siphiwo Ntshebe by helping to arrange scholarships for them at the Royal College of Music in London.

Finally, in 2010 her tenure came to an end, leaving many fond memories and a much expanded circle of friends, not just for herself, but for the country she represented so capably and enthusiastically.

In 2014, she was awarded the national Order of Ikhamanga for her contribution to the arts.

Ambassador Mabuza returned to the UK a few times after her retirement from diplomatic service, most recently in June 2019 to launch her new book, “Conversations with Uncle OR Tambo” and again in October 2019 to attend the unveiling of a statue of Oliver Tambo at the Albert Road Recreational Park, which has since been renamed the Oliver Tambo Recreational Ground.

Former President Thabo Mbeki paid tribute to her today, saying “Amb. Mabuza was a self-effacing, guileless, and humane person, who served our country and its people with distinction for well over half-a-century in various capacities during both the struggle for our liberation and the democratic dispensation. Following our country’s liberation in 1994, she was among the first women who were tasked to represent our country as Ambassadors.” 

Current High Commissioner Ms Nomatemba Tambo said today;

“Life is so strange.

My father said it was a circle that always returned you to a part of your past. That’s what happened to us.

Aunt Lindiwe would often send for me when she was the High Commissioner to the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland. When I would ask her why, she would say it was because she loved me and needed to be in my company from time to time. I think she was prophetic and was giving me a glimpse into what to expect in my future.

She was forever busy, strategizing, innovating, bending procrastinators to her charm and vibrancy.

Aunt Lindiwe was a bit of a task master and workaholic.  Good.  She achieved the most spectacular results in her work, wherever she was posted, but for me I saw it in London.

She had the gift of bringing people together. She had the gift of polishing rough diamonds until they themselves knew how brightly they shone. People loved her, as did I. Very much.

Her smile was irresistible. Loyalty was something she treasured in others and stood by steadfastly herself. 

Aunt Lindiwe will be greatly missed. We all say that about those we know who have passed on and they are, but for me, I feel as if the air we breathe is a little heavier.

Who would have thought that 10 years after her post in the United Kingdom ended, that she would be visiting me here, doing her old job. As always she was generous, kind, joyful. A delight. I will miss the way her face would light up when she saw you and she would sing out your name like a hymn.

Aunt Lindiwe, the mould has been broken.”

2021-12-09T03:46:06+00:007 December 2021|News|

SERVICES AT 15 WHITEHALL (HOME AFFAIRS)

Services at 15 Whitehall (Home affairs) are now rendered strictly by appointment.

In order to minimize the number of people visiting our office, and to keep everyone safe, we encourage postal applications where possible, especially for child passport applications and birth registration.

Please follow the steps below:

Step No 1:

Download guidelines and application forms using this link.

You will provided with DHA 9  to complete at the office during your appointment

Step No 2:

Complete all forms received and prepare your supporting documents per guidelines.

Step No 3:

Send your request for an appointment at: Civic.appointments@dirco.gov.za. The request must include:

Full names and ID number of the applicant as well as the type of Service required.

POSTAL APPLICATIONS

Step No 1:

Download guidelines and application forms using this link.

Request additional application forms (forms with unique bar code) by sending an A4 Self -addressed pre- paid (1st class Large stamp) envelope (per applicant) with a note stating the forms required and the age of the applicant.

NB: Royal Mail: If the postage stamp on the envelope is insufficient or the envelope is the wrong size, the forms will NOT be mailed to you.

Step No 2:

Fully complete all forms received and prepare your supporting documents per guidelines received.

Post your application forms and requirements to:

South African High Commission
15 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2DD

Website: www.southafricahouse.uk

PASSPORT COLLECTION

Passport collections are strictly from 1400 to 1500 hours Monday to Friday, except on Public holidays. No other services will be rendered during the time allocated for passport collections.

No application forms will be handed out during collection.

2021-04-03T07:02:11+01:0019 March 2021|Home Affairs|

Virtual event to unveil the new signage at O. R. Tambo Recreation Ground

Haringey Council agreed to rename Albert Road Recreation Ground O. R. Tambo Recreation Ground to highlight Oliver Tambo’s legacy in the borough and worldwide.

The event was live-streamed out via Facebook.

Watch below:

2021-03-19T15:00:40+00:0019 March 2021|News|
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