The Department of Home Affairs is beefing up its corruption-busting unit as part of efforts to clamp down on syndicates that are selling documents to illegal foreign nationals and breaching the country’s security.
In an interview with Sunday World, minister Aaron Motsoaledi said they would be recruiting 12 more members for the anti-corruption unit as part of the war against graft, “which can’t be lost or otherwise we risk the country’s DNA being destroyed”.
Motsoaledi said he was working around the clock to ensure that the appeals process fordocuments – which has resulted in some foreign nationals not qualify to be in South Africa for extended periods – becomes more effective.
“Identification is the basis for stability, it is the basis of law and order, and it is the basis for the smooth running of the social, the political and the economic life of the country,” he said.
“We are coming (for corrupt officials and their accomplices). There is no going back. Somebody once jokingly said, ‘Motsoaledi if you think you will end corruption in Home Affairs, you might have to fire two thirds of the staff’ and I said ‘so be it’.”
Motsoaledi’s comments follow the arrest on Wednesday of an immigration officer who facilitated the entry of five Bangladeshi citizens.
The syndicate involves immigration officers, airport ground handling staff, cleaners, security personnel as well as law enforcement agencies. At the heart of the modus operandi is an airline member smuggling Bangladeshis in by either providing false names or by not including the names of travellers on the passenger lists.
The department recently uncovered a criminal network – which included 13 foreigners and 13 South Africans – that worked with corrupt officials to produce fake passports using the Home Affairs system. The kingpin of the so-called “photo swap” syndicate is a Pakistani.
Motsoaledi rejected the argument that foreigners resorted to bribery and counterfeit documents because the department was inefficient.
He also dismissed the notion that many illegal immigrants were in the country because of desperation, saying most came to South Africa for economic survival and did not qualify to be asylum seekers or refugees.
“The fact that they are defrauding documents is not because Home Affairs is not doing its work. That cannot be the excuse,” he said, adding that the backlog was caused by the country’s tedious appeal process when foreigners are denied asylum or refugee status.
“These syndicates we are catching have got nothing to do with desperation. These are huge money-making schemes. They are doing business using people. The security of the country lies with the Home Affairs department,” Motsoaledi said.
“I like telling minister (Bheki) Cele (police minister) that a big percentage of your problems in terms of security in the country stems from Home Affairs. If it was regarded as a security department from the beginning, some of those problems would have not happened,” he said.
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