By Arjan van Oosterhout
An American businessman has been prevented from entering South Africa - because he didn't have enough space in his passport.
Jack Schwager, managing director of international asset management firm The Fortune Group, was due to address conferences in Cape Town and Johannesburg this week.
But he was not allowed to leave Cape Town International Airport and was forced to fly out of the country.
Schwager arrived in Cape Town on Tuesday night. Immigration officer Petro Sneiders told him he had to catch the same KLM aircraft back to Amsterdam the next morning. The reason given was that there was not enough space in his passport for stamps. Two empty passport pages are required for entry.
Schwager phoned Derrick Roper, director of Novare Investments, one of the companies that arranged the trip to South Africa.
Roper phoned the American embassy at midnight and asked if pages could be added to Schwager's passport. The embassy said it was possible and they would be at the airport at 8am.
When Roper informed Sneiders of the imminent arrival of a US embassy official, he was told to phone back in 10 minutes. When Roper did, Schwager was already on the aircraft back to Amsterdam.
"We battled for three months to get him to South Africa and the only thing we now have is a bad taste in the mouth," said Marina van Til, who works for Novare Investments and who organised Schwager's flight.
The department of home affairs said it would investigate the matter.