Cape Town – The deputy director of a Limpopo Home Affairs office, a practising advocate, a policeman, a teacher, and a politician were among those arrested on Thursday for fraud and corruption relating to documentation for foreign nationals, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) said.
The arrested were part of a group of 15 people who were arrested on charges of fraud and corruption.
The other suspects were two immigration officers, four clearing agents, a South African Revenue Services official, a former administration clerk from the Musina police station, a Home Affairs inspectorate official, and a businessman.
Hawks spokesperson Hangwani Mulaudzi said the Home Affairs deputy director – who headed up the Beit Bridge office in Musina – was alleged to have demanded two pairs of shoes worth R3 000 each. This, in exchange, for the stamping of a passport for a foreign national who had no supporting documentation.
The police officer, said Mulaudzi, had allegedly issued a false affidavit to a foreign national in the absence of the recipient in exchange for R1 200.
Joining them in their alleged corrupt activities was the advocate who reportedly demanded and received R23,000 for issuing business visas to foreign nationals.
“The clearing agents were arrested for demanding and receiving between R5,000 and R9,000 for issuing fraudulent SARS Goods Export Permits without goods being presented,” Mulaudzi said.
“The teacher at Musina Secondary School is in the dock for demanding and receiving R2,000 per passport so that he could attach Temporary Residents Permit and apply entry and departure stamps on 21 passports without any documentation supporting the foreign nationals’ stay in the country.”
The politician who was arrested, a Pan Africanist Congress councillor, had allegedly demanded and received R7,200 for issuing false immigration stamps to foreign nationals who had overstayed their time in the country.
All 15 suspects were due to appear in the Musina Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
African News Agency