The long delays experienced by travellers passing through immigration at Johannesburg’s OR Tambo International Airport are likely to continue as the Department of Home Affairs has confirmed it will not be assigning additional personnel to man the immigration desks at the airport.

Home Affairs Spokesperson, Mayihlome Tshwete, says, while the department has acknowledged the human resource challenges at OR Tambo International, it is not embarking on any staff intake exercise due to cost containment measures as prescribed by National Treasury.

“We are working on a plan to rationalise staff, and only once that process is completed will we be in a position to redirect some officials to these centres,” Tshwete says.

He could not offer a timeline on when these issues would be resolved.

Last month, Tshwete told Tourism Update the issue of staff absenteeism at airport immigration had been resolved.

But travellers have continued to report first-hand accounts of standing in long queues trying to clear immigration – with many sources arguing that staff shortages at passport control were the primary cause of delays.

“We were in the queue at immigration for two hours and made the flight with seconds to spare, but several passengers were offloaded behind us because only four immigration counters were open,” one traveller said on Twitter.

Another disgruntled traveller said he’d waited “well over 45 minutes because only two people were working (at the immigration desks) while several others were wandering around”.

June Crawford, CEO of Barsa, says airlines flying to and from international destinations are also affected. “We must find ways to make the experience at OR Tambo more efficient by ensuring all parties have the willingness to find solutions.”

Inge Beadle, Manager of Corporate Travel Services, says the introduction of a standby passport officer dedicated to handling issues at immigration would relieve pressure on regular staff and increase efficiency. “Heathrow has this sort of system and it helps things run smoothly at that airport.”

Tshwete says the department will continue to seek measures to serve travellers efficiently, “albeit with limited resources”.