When renewing my South African passport, why did my coloured photo?
Well, thats the standard! Pre-2009, the bio-data page of a South African passport looked like this: On April 1, 2009, the South African Department of Home Affairs changed the looks and security measures of the passports. This included changing colored images to black-and-white images, plus adding a ghost image: You most likely had the pre-2009 passport and now have the new version. Your new passport has a monochrome photograph of yours, because thats what the government decided and thats what every South African is getting since 2009. Its not something special for you. If you are doubtful, to put your mind at ease, there are many, many countries that print passports with monochrome images instead of colored ones. Colombia: New Zealand: Norway: Singapore: You still get colored photographs in many passports as well. For instance: Canada: Peru: Seychelles: More and more countries are printing passports with monochrome photographs. This practice is becoming more commonplace now than in the past. So, it is not a surprise that South Africa is already doing so.