When did the UK High Commission stop issuing passports?
Please see below as taken from The High COMMISSIONS website:
The British High Commission can’t help with passport enquiries.
https://www.gov.uk/government/world/organisations/british-high-commission-pretoria
When did the UK High Commission stop issuing passports?
In Commonwealth and foreign countries, British passports used to be issued by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the Passport Section of a British consulate, embassy, or High Commission. Since 2009, some British embassies ceased issuing full passports (though quickly available emergency passports of limited validity were still issued for one-way travel to the UK or to another part of the Commonwealth), and as of 2010, British passport applications must be made directly to the Passport Office in the United Kingdom. In practice, overseas applications are sent by the applicant to a centralised processing point;
In South Africa the High Commission was assisting in the process by sending the applications from the High Commission through diplomatic channels to Her Majesty’s Passport Office in the UK. They however ceased to do this towards the end of 2013.
No official reason has been gazetted but one can surmise that this was due to the below incident:
On Saturday 21 September 2013, unidentified gunmen attacked Westgate shopping mall, an upscale mall in Nairobi Kenya. The attack resulted in at least 67 deaths, and more than 175 people were reportedly wounded in the mass shooting.
The extremist Islamic group al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the incident and a woman named Samantha Louise Lewthwaite also known as Sherafiyah Lewthwaite or the White Widow, is a British woman who is one of the Western world's most wanted terrorism suspects was found to be in possession of a UK Passport issued in Pretoria. The High Commission no longer assist with renewing UK Passports
All applications to renew an existing British Passport have to be made online and hard copies of the application and supporting documents need to be posted or couriered to the UK.
For all assistance with the process of renewing your British Passport , please contact British Passport services britishpassports@telkomsa.net or visit UK passports