‘We don’t want officials walking free’ – Home Affairs deputy minister asks for patience as visa fraud probe continues

Parliament has been urged to be patient as investigations into visa and permit fraud at the Department of Home Affairs unfold.

Officials from the department appeared before Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs on Tuesday to provide an update about the progress made on the Lubisi report’s recommendations.

The report emanated from a ministerial committee established by Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi to review all the permits and visas issued since 2004.

A multi-disciplinary task team (MDTT) was assigned to implement the report and has been operational since March 2023.

Visa, permit investigations

Briefing the parliamentary committee on Tuesday, forensic investigator Peter Bishop, who is part of the MDTT, reminded MPs the Lubisi report recommended that foreign pastors and prophets such as Shepherd Bushiri be investigated.

Bishop said the team has recovered data sets to run data analysis tests.

“A number of matters have been referred to the DPCI [Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation or Hawks] criminal investigation,” he said.

The investigator told the committee that all permanent residence permits that were approved, but had been declined previously due to false documentation having been submitted were still being investigated.

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All issued visitors visas status change to permanent residence permits while in South Africa as well as business permits, under age visas, work visas and study visas were also being looked at.

“All visa applications that were processed after hours, over weekends and public holidays on [the visa adjudication system] by Home Affairs official, each case needs to be investigated to avoid any manipulation of data,” Bishop continued.

Bishop said the same passport number used by multiple people was being investigated.

Even passports that were processed and approved within a day or less will be under scrutiny.

Home Affairs legal opinion

Bishop further told the committee that the Department of Home Affairs received a legal opinion in November last year, which suggested that visas must be annulled in cases where applicants possess such a document obtained through fraudulent means and face deportation in terms of the Immigration Act.

The holders of fraudulent permanent residence permits will suffer the same fate.

All affected parties holding fraudulent visas or permanent residence permits should be informed about about the revocation of their documents, according to the legal opinion.

“Once adequate notice has been given, the applicants with fraudulent visas or permanent residence permits should be added to [the prohibited person list] and deported,” Bishop explained.

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For applicants who became naturalised citizens fraudulently will also be strip of the naturalisation rights by the minister.

The MDTT has found that 45 000 visas and permits were issued fraudulently between 2014 and 2021, Bishop revealed.

At least 50 Home Affairs officials were identified in the disciplinary referrals by the department.

Two officials have been referred to the Hawks for criminal investigation.

There are 33 officials who might be referred after their disciplinary hearings.

Watch the meeting below:

Bishop further highlighted that 27 charge sheets have been finalised, five disciplinary hearings are proceeding, 10 disciplinary matters have proposed dates set down, 12 disciplinary matters have been concluded and nine officials have been dismissed.

“One official has been dismissed and is subject to an appeal and two officials resigned when notices were served on them.”

More than 307 000 instances, Bishop said, of potentially implicated individuals in unlawful or irregular activities relating to the processing of visas and permits were flagged by the MDTT during investigations.

Corruption

After the presentation members of the committee expressed concern over the speed of the MDTT’s investigations.

MPs were also worried about the Home Affairs officials who are still employed by the department, saying this placed the investigation at risk and, therefore, could lead to further problems in the processing of permits and visas.

Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Deputy Njabulo Nzuza emphasised that work has been done to deal with the “rot and corruption” within the department.

“I must alert the committee that in our approach we must always remember that fighting corruption also comes with [financial] costs in terms of investigations.

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“There will be time delay issues as well as system and process change costs. If you look at the recommendations, they are quiet clear in terms of the system changes that we must effect.

“We must also remember that there will always be criminal procedures that will have to be followed, which means that when we are dealing with corruption we are not just dealing with a person doing something wrong and then you cut them off from work.

“There are processes that you have to follow to the level where-in you ultimately get a conviction of that person. That’s when you can say justice has been done and that process is delicate and it has a lot of legal issues,” the deputy minister told MPs.

Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, 05 March 2024 https://t.co/kpuss0CGR3

— Parliament of RSA (@ParliamentofRSA) March 5, 2024

Nzuza asked the committee to be patient as investigations continue rather than having individuals “walking off just because of a procedure that might not have been followed”.

Motsoaledi stressed it was “not automatic” that an official will be suspended, while they are being investigated.

“It depends on the type of investigation [as to] how will that person affect the investigation. There are serious cases where we actually do suspend [Home Affairs officials].”

The minister also said the investigations were looking to things that happened over “a very long time”.

“Remember that with the Lubisi report, we asked them to start as far back as 2004. From 2004 until now, that’s 20 years [so] events that took place [in this period] cannot really be finalised in a short space of time.”

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