The Hawks are questioning multiple department officials as a result of Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s increased focus on corruption in the issuance of visas and permits.
Additionally, the Minister will meet with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), which President Cyril Ramaphosa requested be tasked with looking into allegations of corruption involving visas and permanent residence permits between 2004 and this year.
On Tuesday, Peter Bishop, a member of the task team that Motsoaledi formed in March of last year to investigate corruption in the department, reported to the National Assembly’s Portfolio Committee at Home Affairs that the team has made advances in examining the issues at hand.
Motsoaledi established this task team after the Lubisi investigation revealed discrepancies in the issuance of visas and permits for permanent residence, implicating several officials. According to him, there will be internal disciplinary procedures and arrests of any of the officials involved in the illegal issuance of visas and permits.
Bishop stated that after conducting investigations, they discovered cases of fraud in the processing of applications for foreign nationals under multiple categories. Another strange finding was that, applications that were turned down for one category would be transferred to another until they were approved.
In addition, the task team also looked into a few visa and permit applications that were submitted on weekends, after work, and on public holidays. Bishop stated that in order to determine how they will further look into these issues, they will meet with Motsoaledi and the SIU.
He reported that, 28 officials have been referred to the Hawks, and that referring 94 more cases to the crime-busting unit was the task team’s plan.
“In respect of up to as many identified 303,832 potentially unlawful and/or irregular MCS (movement control system) movements processed by officials of the department, 34 officials and associated number of movements authorised by each were identified and being investigated. This will form a big part of the legal opinion that we provided and will be looked at in that regard in particular.”
He stated that, internal disciplinary hearings were scheduled for 61 officials due to their suspected role in the issuance of fraudulent permits and visas. Further saying that their investigations are based on the Lubisi report, which pointed out several areas that needed to be looked into, including security breaches.
According to Bishop, prior to 2014, the department used the track and trace system but because systems were evaded, all applications need to be examined closely.
The number of retirement visas increased significantly between 2016 and 2018. The Immigration Act was broken when these retirement visas were granted. Additionally, they were looking into visa applications that were submitted on weekends, public holidays, and after hours.
They also discovered that different people would occasionally use the same passport number. They found discrepancies between the date on the document and the day the visa or permit was approved.
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