Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Malusi Gigaba told Reuters that visa fees, normally costing 425 rand ($57), would be waived for fans who held a ticket.
"Visas will be issued free of charge to anybody who possesses a FIFA World Cup ticket or the certificate that proves that they have purchased their ticket.
"These visas will be provided in South Africa's foreign missions and we have made available these visas to about 112 missions abroad," Gigaba said in a telephone interview.
"It is the first time it is happening in the world. No other country has done something like this and its specially designed around facilitating easier travel for the World Cup," ministry spokesman Ricky Naidoo said.
"We should as South Africans be preparing to welcome all the hundreds of thousands of visitors expected to come and watch the the World Cup, " Gigaba said.
"But instead of doing that some of us are busy obsessing about people who will not be returning to their countries ...this is wholly inappropriate, it goes against the grain of us having made the bid to host the World Cup in the first instance."
