Hawks eye more suspects in passport fraud syndicate

HOME AFFAIRS

THE Hawks have set their sights on arresting more suspects linked in an alleged passport fraud syndicate in Durban.

Five were arrested in a Home Affairs-led law enforcement operation at the weekend.

The operation, supported by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, took place at the uMngeni and Commercial Road offices in Durban. One suspect was found with 226 passports that had been stolen from the uMngeni Road Home Affairs office.

Among the five people arrested are a former Home Affairs official from the Prospecton office, a municipal project volunteer at the Commercial Road office, and three members of the public. One of the private citizens was found in possession of the stolen passports, the department said.

It said the successful operation was initiated by Home Affairs’ Counter-Corruption Unit following information received from the public. One of the suspects was also found with keys to the Home Affairs offices on Commercial Road and at Prospecton.

The same suspect was also found with copies of enabling documents that did not belong to him. All five suspects are expected to appear in the Durban Commercial Crimes Court today.

The department said two further suspects have been identified as members of this syndicate but the Hawks remain on the hunt for them.

In a statement, Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said: “This latest operation lands another blow in our ongoing cleanup campaign at Home Affairs, which is specifically focused on breaking open criminal syndicates.

"The details of the case also reaffirms the urgent work we are doing to digitalise all of our processes, so that it becomes impossible for syndicates to penetrate and manipulate our systems. This combination of ensuring criminals are arrested and prosecuted, and using digital transformation to close the loopholes they exploit, is how we will ultimately win the war against corruption.”

Hawks spokesperson Katlego Mogale said their Serious Corruption Investigation component, based Pretoria had secured a number of warrants of arrest which were executed in various parts of KwaZulu-Natal.

"The execution operation emanates from a complaint from the DHA relating to the issuance of fraudulent passports to undocumented foreign nationals. The allegations reported serious offences include corruption, fraud, and contraventions of the Identification Act and Immigration Act that took place between February 2020 and July 2023, wherein group of South African citizens allegedly facilitated the fraudulent acquisition of South African passports by foreign nationals at DHA offices in Durban, specifically the Commercial Street branch. These unlawful activities took place outside of regular business hours, including evenings, weekends and public holidays, when the DHA offices were officially closed," she said. 

  Mogale said preliminary investigations by the DHA confirmed that the criminal activities were indeed conducted on off hours where the local citizens offered R300 to R1,000 in exchange for their cooperation especially at DHA offices in Isipingo, Durban Central and Eshowe resulting in a case being opened for investigation by Serious Corruption Investigation.

While the five suspects are expected to appear at the Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court today, Mogale said the Hawks have not ruled out the possibility of more suspects being arrested.

Last month The Mercury reported on lifestyle audits for Home Affairs officials. At the time, the department said it had completed 476 lifestyle audits on its officials. It said employees flagged during the process have been referred for vetting, and disciplinary action is expected to follow where wrongdoing is confirmed.

This week it said 33 corrupt officials have been dismissed since July last year, as well as the criminal conviction of eight offenders, with sentences ranging from four to 18 years in prison.

Cape Times