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South Africa’s Consul-General to Nigeria, Prof Bobby Moroe, has explained why Ayra Starr was initially denied a visa in 2024.
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Moroe said the singer’s team submitted a yellow fever certificate from another country instead of one from Nigeria.
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He said the issue was later resolved and Ayra Starr was granted a one-year visa to perform in South Africa.
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The 2024 visa issue resurfaced in July 2026 amid renewed tensions over xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa and backlash over Tyla’s planned Lagos concert.
August 08, (THEWILL) — South Africa’s Consul-General to Nigeria, Prof Bobby Moroe, has explained that Ayra Starr’s initial visa rejection in 2024 was caused by an incorrect yellow fever certificate.
Moroe made the clarification in an interview with The PUNCH, saying the incident occurred in February 2024 and was not a recent development.
Ayra Starr was scheduled to headline the ‘In The City’ concerts in Johannesburg and Cape Town that month.
The shows were later cancelled after she and members of her team were unable to secure their visas. At the time, organizers said the visa issue was beyond the artists’ control.
According to Moroe, however, the problem was related to the documents submitted by the singer’s team.
“One of the challenges was that they did not submit an appropriate yellow fever certificate. They submitted the yellow fever certificate of another country when they were supposed to submit the yellow fever certificate of their home country,” he said.
The Consul-General said the matter was later resolved after officials met with Ayra Starr’s team and explained the requirements.
“Subsequently, the matter was resolved amicably and they were granted a one-year visa to go and perform in South Africa in 2024,” Moroe said.
He also rejected suggestions that Ayra Starr’s celebrity status or nationality played a role in the rejection, stressing that visa applications are assessed according to immigration requirements.
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“If you meet the requirement for a visa, whether you are a star or not, tall, short, black or white, if you qualify, you will get it,” he said.
The 2024 visa controversy resurfaced in July 2026 amid renewed tensions between Nigeria and South Africa over xenophobic attacks on Nigerians living in the country.
The issue also became part of the backlash over South African singer Tyla’s planned concert in Lagos.
After she announced her APOP World Tour, with a Lagos show scheduled for December 22, 2026, some Nigerians called for a boycott and brought up Ayra Starr’s previous visa issue as an example of what they saw as unequal treatment of Nigerian and South African entertainers.
The renewed debate raised questions about whether South Africa was restricting visas for Nigerian entertainers, prompting the South African mission to clarify what happened in Ayra Starr’s case.
Moroe dismissed the broader claim that South Africa had stopped issuing visas to Nigerians.
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“Whether you are Ayra Starr or anyone, if you qualify, you will get it. The narrative that we have stopped issuing visas to Nigerians is false,” he said.
The Consul-General also disclosed that visa applications from Nigerians had increased, rising from an average of 40 to 60 applications monthly to between 60 and 80.
His clarification places Ayra Starr’s visa rejection in its original 2024 context, while separating it from the wider diplomatic and xenophobia-related tensions that brought the issue back into public discussion in 2026.
Evi-Ben Ezaga is an entertainment and society writer with a passion for stories that explore culture, people, and the stories shaping society today.
