Yes, shooting at Joburg is not possible without a whole world of paperwork. To my knowledge (going back 20 years) no one has shot in an operational area there. You can get into the maintenance areas but apart from that, no.
Unless of course you are shooting for ACSA - the owner.

In the 70's, Jan Smuts only had one terminal but it had a high viewing area just under the roof. While setting up to take some pictures of the apron with its, 707;s, 727's and the first A300's I was accosted by some dubious characters in suits who not so politely asked my to pack away my camera and leave immediately, or they would need to escort me to a place where I could be interviewed. I left...

Later in the early 90's, I stayed some 5 km from the airport, I would nip over to the back fence and try to catch the jets landing on the new parallel runway. It was a challenge to shake off the white van which seemed to be forever trying to catch me in the act. I never had the bottle to do anything on the Denel side since that place was seriously overmanned with guards packing heat. :eek:

IG