Home Affairs in KZN is investigating cases involved marriages between South African nationals and foreign nationals that have been flagged.
Image: File
The Department of Home Affairs in KwaZulu-Natal has made significant strides in addressing immigration concerns, finalising 813 cases for investigation in the third quarter of the 2025/26 financial year.
Provincial manager Cyril Mncwabe disclosed these figures during a recent meeting of the KZN Council Against Crime held in Durban.
Mncwabe said the cases involved marriages between South African nationals and foreign nationals that have been flagged.
“Those are the cases where most of the time we have got to check, to do reports and investigate something like marriages of convenience...some of the foreign nationals getting married to South Africans and it’s detected in some instances that those are the marriages of convenience, not necessarily just for the obtaining of our documents as a country,” Mncwabe explained.
“In quarter three, we have finalised 813 such cases as a province.”
Mncwabe highlighted that in the same reporting period, they conducted 148 law enforcement operations.
“In the third quarter, we’ve managed to detect and charge 48 employers that are in contravention of the Immigration Act,” Mncwabe said.
He said that the annual performance plan sets a 100% target for detecting transgressors in contravention of the Immigration Act. In the third quarter, the performance achieved was 1299 detections.
Explaining the deportation of foreign nationals who are illegally in the country, he said they happen in two ways:
“In quarter three, in terms of the transfers to Lindela, we have already done 998. However, the transfers to Lindela from quarter one to quarter three is 2141,” Mncwabe said.
“On direct deportation, that is Swaziland and certain areas of Mozambique, and Lesotho we have already done 1093 from quarter one to quarter three.”
Mncwabe said system reform is on the cards for immigration legislation as the White paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection was published for public comment.
“We are also trying to strengthen the area of deportation of all confirmed cases,” Mncwabe said.
He said the department assists and participates in the confirmation of the status of foreigners during roadblocks, labour inspections, law enforcement operations and business inspections.
He added that with these strategies, they also encourage legal migration channels by ensuring people are aware of what necessary documents they need to have when they enter the country, and ensure that they renew the necessary documents.
“Normally we do not give documents for a lifetime. Those documents have a lifespan and they have to be renewed. That is when, in some instances, you would find that people came to South Africa legally, but they became illegal whilst inside the country,” Mncwabe said.
Cape Times