The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and law enforcement have arrested seven people allegedly involved in a passport fraud syndicate.

Berea Mail reports that the suspects, foreign nationals operating in Durban, will appear in the Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court today.

Initially, five people were arrested, but two more have been arrested since the weekend.

“The Serious Corruption Investigation component of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, based in Pretoria, has arrested an additional two suspects in the ongoing operation that began on Saturday in KZN, bringing the number to seven,” says Hawks’ Colonel Katlego Mogale.

“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 including corruption, fraud and contraventions of the Identification Act [68 of 1997] and Immigration Act [13 of 2002] that took place between February 2020 and July 2023, wherein a 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.

“Preliminary investigations by the DHA confirmed that the criminal activities were indeed conducted [during] off-hours when local citizens [were] offered R300 to R1 000 in exchange for their co-operation, especially at DHA offices in Isipingo, Durban Central and Eshowe, resulting in a case being opened for investigation by Serious Corruption Investigation.”

The Minister of Home Affairs Leon Schreiber reiterated: “Our strategy of clamping down on criminals, while using technology to close loopholes they exploit, is how we will ultimately win the war against corruption.”

The Hawks are not ruling out the possibility of more suspects being arrested.

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