Can South African bosses still dictate where and when staff travel?
The UAE has lifted its airspace restrictions, the US-Iran ceasefire appears to be holding (as of 18 May 2026), Emirates has restored 96% of its global network, other Gulf carriers (including Etihad, Qatar and Saudia) continue to rebuild operations, and capacity constraints are gradually settling. By most operational measures, things are looking up.
Traveller confidence is a different story.
As Mummy Mafojane, General Manager of FCM South Africa, explains, geopolitical conflict – including fresh drone attacks – continues to impact travel decisions, with travel managers rerouting travellers, changing itineraries, delaying non-essential trips and taking a hard look at their duty of care policies.
What business travellers are actually feeling
South Africans are fairly resilient by nature. Covid, years of load shedding, economic volatility and the loss of more than one domestic carrier have produced travellers that know how to roll with disruption.
“But business travel complicates the picture,” says Mafojane. “When your company sends you somewhere, a grounded flight is more than an inconvenience. It can quickly become a question of duty of care, insurance, work and family obligations, corporate liability and personal safety, all at once.”
Global Rescue’s recent Traveller Sentiment and Safety Surveys show that 56% of travellers are more concerned about personal safety than a year ago. The travel risk and crisis organisation also found that:
- 82% of travellers express some level of concern about personal security risks abroad, including kidnapping, extortion and violent crime;
- 38% describe today’s travel risk as unpredictable;
- 36% believe international travel is more dangerous than it was before 2020; and
- 31% of seasoned travellers say illness or injury abroad is their biggest concern for 2026, followed by civil unrest or terrorism at 21%.
Can bosses still dictate where and when staff travel?
Legally, in South Africa, the short answer is yes: employers can generally direct where and when employees travel for work, provided the request is reasonable and aligns with the employment contract. In return, they must cover the costs, ensure safe working conditions and respect the employee’s fundamental rights.
Practically, duty of care has evolved well beyond a clause in an employment contract. ISO 31030, the international standard for travel risk management, now sets a benchmark courts use to judge whether an employer acted reasonably.
It requires senior leadership ownership (where the organisation’s appetite for risk is defined, documented, signed off at the top and reviewed regularly), pre-trip risk assessment, real-time tracking and a credible incident response plan. It also explicitly covers psychological wellbeing, not only physical safety.
For South African employers, it means that travel decisions can no longer be made in isolation from the traveller. A reasonable instruction is one that has been thought through, risk-assessed, properly supported and openly discussed with the person being sent.
“Travellers want clarity, choice and a sense that someone has thought carefully about the trip before they board,” says Mafojane. “The companies getting this right have moved from a purely compliance mindset to a conversation. Pre-trip briefings, transparent route options, and a clearly understood escalation path are no longer nice-to-haves; they are the foundations of a strong travel programme.”
The trust “signals” travellers are looking for
For Mafojane, the levels of disruption experienced in late February/early March proved that human-led crisis response – with experienced travel managers at the helm – isn’t going anywhere.
“Automated tools are brilliant, and they certainly speed up our response time, but travellers still turn to human support in times of genuine disruption,” says Mafojane. “A 24-hour line answered by an experienced consultant remains a valuable feature of a corporate travel programme.”
Reliable, consistent technology also builds trust over time.
“Travellers lose confidence quickly when booking systems, itinerary tools, expense platforms and tracking apps fail – or tell them different things,” says Mafojane. “An integrated system, from booking platform to traveller app, should be a reliable source of information. It’s an important aspect of duty of care.”
Finally, more than a passing nod to traveller wellness and wellbeing. Travellers notice the difference. Flexibility on rebooking, openness to bleisure (combining business and leisure travel) where it makes sense, proper pre-trip briefings that cover what to do when things go wrong, and post-trip recovery time are the markers that read as genuine care.
“The programmes that will thrive over the next year are the ones that focus on traveller confidence,” says Mafojane. “Get that right, and the rest follows.”
