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South Africa Country Profile

Passport
For more details visit South Africa Passport Ranking
  • Passport Grade
    C-
  • Passport Ranking
    110/198
  • Passport Score
    57.8/198
  • Visa-free Countries
    96
  • Visa-required Countries
    102
  • Access to the World's GDP
    15%
  • Access to the World's Surface Area
    41%
  • Access to the World's Population
    26%
  • Access to the Unesco Sites
    27%
Citizenship and Naturalization
Birthright citizenship (Jus Soli)
  • Birthright citizenship (Jus Soli)
    Restricted
    Restricted: A child born in South Africa will become a citizen if at least one of the parents holds permanent residency.
Naturalization - Standard Conditions
  • Minimum residency period
    5 years
    All 5 years must spent as a permanent resident. Many resdidency types in South Africa start as PR right away. However, the naturalization process is reportedly very convoluted.
  • Physical presence requirement
    –
  • Language test
    Yes, English or any other official language
  • Need to renounce original citizenship?
    No
  • Can minor children naturalize?
    –
  • Can naturalized parents pass citizenship to a child born abroad?
    –
  • Can you lose naturalization due to prolonged absence/ naturalization elsewhere?
    –
Naturalization - Your Spouse is a Citizen
  • Living IN the country: Residency/marriage requirement
    5 years / 5 years
    Must hold permanent residency for 5 years. And you can only get it after being married for 5 years.
  • Living ABROAD: Marriage requirement
    Not allowed
  • Language test
    Yes, English or any other official language.
  • Need to renounce original citizenship?
    No
Naturalization - Other Beneficial Provisions
  • Your child is a citizen
    No provisions
  • Citizens of specific countries
    No provisions
"–": The provision has not been analysed.
Taxation
For more details visit Cost of Living
  • Taxation Type
    Residence-based
A tax resident of a country with a RESIDENCE-BASED tax system pays taxes on their WORLDWIDE income. However, if you lose tax residency status there (e.g., by moving out), the country will generally stop taxing you.
Schiff Sovereign's Take on South Africa
South Africa is close to the hearts of several Sovereign Man team members.

Our founder, Simon Black, calls South Africa “by far the most beautiful country in the world”. Our marketing manager hails from there, and our Sovereign Woman, Viktorija, travels there often, too.

It's the only place on the planet where, within a short two-hour drive, you can see penguins and whales, lions and rhinos, elephants, and white sharks.

The country is home to both some of the finest wines and the most spectacular vistas in the world.

South Africa is also the most advanced place in Africa. We don’t necessarily care for Johannesburg, but Cape Town is truly beautiful, surrounded by an imposing mountain, and located right on the water. It just doesn't get much better than this. 

The weather is great, too, particularly in the Western Cape (where Cape Town is located).

And everything there is fairly cheap.

You can enjoy a wonderful lifestyle in South Africa, for far less than you would in places like the US, UK and Canada. Retirees and digital nomads might therefore find it particularly compelling. English is widely spoken, and amenities abound.

We have covered how to obtain residency there in this report.

Still, there are some major trade-offs, or we would all be living there full-time.

The South African government is utterly incompetent and corrupt.

Crime is also a very serious issue in South Africa. Of course, big cities tend to be more dangerous than smaller affluent communities on the coast, for example. But if you ever wander out of the protected gated communities, expect to get robbed at some point — maybe in a week, maybe in a year, but it will happen.

And there are some serious ethnic tensions that haven’t been cleared up since apartheid. The white minority is increasingly leaving the country in search of a more stable and safer life in Europe, Australia, Canada, etc. 
Schiff Sovereign's Rolodex
Service Providers available in South Africa
  • Immigration (residency, citizenship)
Obtain access to our Rolodex by signing up for Sovereign Confidential Join Sovereign Confidential Today

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South Africa Overview
  • Region
    Sub Saharan Africa
  • Capital City
    Pretoria
  • Largest City
    Johannesburg
  • Currency
    South African rand
  • Languages
    Afrikaans, English, isiZulu, etc.
  • Population
    60.6 million (24th)
  • Life Expectancy
    65.3 years (201st)
  • GDP (Nominal)
    $411.5 billion (39th)
  • GDP/Capita
    $6,790 (106th)
Useful Data
For more details visit Cost of Living
  • Cost of Living
    Very cheap (2/7)
  • Climate
    Very comfortable (1/5)
  • Safety
    Extremely Dangerous (7/7)
  • Pollution
    Average (3/5)
  • English Proficiency
    Very High (1/5)

Sovereign Global Explorer

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PREMIUM REPORTS
South Africa inside Schiff Sovereign resources

Articles featuring South Africa

Trends & News

South Africa’s brand new president vows to confiscate land from white farmers

[Editor’s Note: As we’re coming up on the end of the year, we thought it would be appropriate to republish some of our most popular Notes articles of 2018. Today’s article was originally published on February 21, 2018.] If you’ve been following much international news, you’ve probably heard that, after literally years of scandal, abuse, […]
Trends & News

The Hitler of South Africa tells white people he won’t kill them. . . yet

Earlier this week while most of the world was transfixed on the World Cup, the Trump/Kim handshake, or a multitude of other sundry events, Julius Malema, aka the Hitler of South Africa, was busy telling white people in his country that he’s not going wage genocide against them. Yet. In an interview with TRT World […]
Investing

The Hitler of South Africa is crushing farmland prices… time to buy?

One of our major themes this year has been avoiding big mistakes… Mostly, we’ve been talking about avoiding assets that are irrationally expensive (like most stocks and real estate today). And we’ve been discussing ways to raise cash and diversify outside of traditional investments to protect your capital. But now that you have all that […]
Trends & News

Boots on the Ground in South Africa’s chaos

Editor’s Note: Today’s letter is written by a Sovereign Man team member, Andre Bothma, who is based in South Africa. In KwaZulu-Natal province, where Zuma is from, supporters of the former president launched a massive, coordinated protest campaign against his incarceration. Freeways were blocked with burning tires. Vehicles were stoned. Trucks set alight across the […]

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