• The Department of Home Affairs has told Parliament that their officials irregularly facilitated SA passports for foreigners while the country was in lockdown.
• The department is also investigating nearly 300 000 unauthorised cross-border movements which were registered on its central management system.
• On Tuesday, MPs were briefed on the department’s effort to root out corruption in the issuance of visas and permits.
When the country was in the chokehold of the Covid-19 lockdown, rogue home affairs officials irregularly facilitated South African passports for foreign nationals.
On top of this, investigations into nearly 300 000 unauthorised cross-border movements are under way and over 3 000 retirement visas have come under the microscope.
As the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) continues to unravel a litany of illegal and irregular actions, the figures paint a clear picture of corruption running deep within the government’s most important departments.
On Tuesday, Parliament’s Committee on Home Affairs was briefed on the progress made by the department to investigate the illegal issuing of visas and other documents.
Former top civil servant, Cassius Lubisi, chairs a task team established to review all permits issued since 2004 - the year in which the Immigration Act came into operation.
Forensic investigations specialist Peter Bishop, who is part of the task team, told MPs they uncovered transactions on the movement control system (MCS) that were created by the irregular users.
Bishop said:
Investigation has commenced, and 285 427 matters were identified for further investigation and action, ostensibly involving unauthorised DHA users that processed movements across South African borders.
He also said some DHA officials allegedly assisted foreign nationals to obtain South African passports irregularly.
This occurred during the height of the Covid-19 lockdown.
“So far, 111 matters have been identified for further investigation,” he said.
Bishop said there was a significant increase of applications for retirement visas between 2016 and 2018.
He said an investigation into the issuance of retirement visas had commenced.
He added that 3 530 visa matters were identified for investigation `relating to retirement visas or permits for young applicants, work or a spousal relationship visa to entitle the applicants to

work in South Africa`.
Bishop also reported that visa applications were rejected due to fraudulent documents submitted but then new applications were approved.
“All 4 160 applications that were rejected due to fraudulent documents submitted but applicants later applied for other visa and permit types which were approved,” he said.
Regarding this, he said 10 matters were under investigation; and six criminal referrals were en route to the Hawks.
Bishop also said investigations into missing visa or permit control numbers had started.
According to him, 1 115 visas were ostensibly issued to foreign nationals, where it appears that certain visa labels may not have been issued by the DHA.
Deputy Home Affairs Minister Njabulo Nzuza said criminals and syndicates were not sitting back.
He said:
When we improve our systems, they also try to improve ways in which they can break our system. Our fight is consistent, and our approach is now that we always have to be a step ahead. This panel has really helped to be steps ahead and prevent some of the things that occurred.
He also said the notion that only junior officials were being targeted was skewed.
“The organisational structure of home affairs, the majority [of the] people that you employ are at junior level. As you go up in the ranks, you have fewer and fewer people. In the permitting division, we had a chief director and we dealt with that matter.
“You have to deal with that one chief director or deputy director-general responsible. This is why it seems like we are less interested in deal[ing] with the top structure because we have less officials to deal with. You deal with one, you deal with the problem,” he said.
ANC MP Bongani Bongo said the department needed to move with visa and permit applications as there were several outstanding.
He also said the only officials targeted for disciplinary proceedings were the “extremely junior ones”.
“They are not talking about the officials of the higher levels. Big instructions involved directors and DDGs,” he said.
DA MP Adrian Roos said the longer investigations took, the more the department’s capacity to produce legal visas and permits were limited. V.4954

DA MP says hours lost continue to result in persons being unable to collect their ID documents due to unmanageable queues The DA has been inundated with complaints that the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) systems are offline, resulting in long queues and delayed processing of documents. Through questions posed to the Minister, the DA can now reveal that the DHA has lost over 77 years’ worth of working hours due to system downtime and load-shedding from 2019 to date. Concerningly, this data only relates to hours lost for the application of smart IDs, meaning decades more of working hours could have been additionally lost in other spheres such as passport or visa applications. V.5314
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Home Affairs’ seemingly endless court battles set the department back more than R110-million between April 2023 and the end of February this year. This was revealed in a written parliamentary response by minister Aaron Motsoaledi. He said the department accumulated a litigation bill of R117 692 996.3, higher than the R72 637 944.51 spent the year before. V.5315
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Airports Company South Africa (ACSA) this week revealed that Cape Town International Airport (CTIA) has achieved a ground-breaking milestone by processing more than 10 million passengers over a single financial year. This is the highest number of regional and international passengers processed since COVID-19 V.5316
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In recent years, South Africa has seen a significant influx of immigrants from various African countries, as well as other parts of the world. This has raised important questions about the country`s immigration policies and their impact on job creation for both locals and immigrants. The South African immigration system, like many other countries, is a complex and ever-evolving process that aims to balance the country`s economic needs with its social and cultural interests. Let`s take a closer look at how this system intersects with job creation in South Africa. The South African government implemented the Immigration Act of 2002, which outlines the country`s immigration policies and procedures. Under this act, foreigners are required to obtain a visa or permit to enter, work, or study in South Africa. The type of visa or permit required depends on the intended purpose of the individual`s visit and their country of origin. V.5312
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Due to system downtime and load-shedding, the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) lost nearly 141,000 hours of Smart ID application and production time between the 2019/20 and 2022/23 financial years. Minister Aaron Motsoaledi revealed this figure in a recent response to questions raised in Parliament by Democratic Alliance MP Adrian Roos. Motsoaledi provided a breakdown of smart ID production and application hours lost to technical difficulties and load-shedding per province for each financial year from 2019/2020. These disruptions hit home Affairs offices in the Eastern Cape the hardest, with over 34,000 hours to rotational power cuts and system downtime. Mpumalanga offices lost the next-highest number of hours at 17 V.5313
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Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has said the public has shown great support for the final White Paper on citizenship, immigration and refugee protection which appeared in the Government Gazette on Wednesday. Briefing the media, he addressed what he saw as a long-overdue need to replace an outdated Citizenship Act, as well as enact proposed changes to existing legislation. V.5306
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Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s indifference to the plight of those affected by his decisions is appalling In the tumultuous seas of immigration law, where uncertainty looms and families are left adrift in bureaucratic limbo, the department of home affairs has emerged as a sinking ship. As a director of a firm of immigration attorneys I’ve witnessed first-hand the dire consequences of the department’s negligence and incompetence. Today, I raise my voice not just as an attorney but as a concerned citizen, urging for a radical overhaul to salvage what remains of our immigration system. We have tirelessly fought battles in the courtroom against home affairs’ disregard for agreed-upon time frames. Countless cases have landed on our desks, each one a testament to the systemic failures plaguing the department. We’ve seen cases where contempt applications were the only recourse, as the department brazenly ignored court orders. V.5307
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Document proposes overhauling the Citizenship Act, the Refugees Act and the Immigration Act and a review of the international treaty on refugee protection Home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi says the cabinet has approved a white paper overhauling the country’s immigration laws after “robust engagements” that resulted in “wide support” of the document’s policy positions. V.5308
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The DA has been inundated with complaints that the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) systems are offline, resulting in long queues and delayed processing of documents. Through questions posed to the Minister, the DA can now reveal that the DHA has lost over 77 years’ worth of working hours due to system downtime and load-shedding from 2019 to date. Concerningly, this data only relates to hours lost for the application of smart IDs, meaning decades more of working hours could have been additionally lost in other spheres such as passport or visa applications. The lost hours are largely due to system downtime, surpassing load-shedding. In the 2022/2023 financial year, where we experienced extensive load-shedding, system downtime was the cause of 41 691 hours lost (17 years), whereas load-shedding caused around 9 322 hours lost (4 years) at DHA civic offices on the production of smart IDs. V.5309
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JOHANNESBURG - Minister of Home Affairs Aaron Motsoaledi said that while the White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection had been gazetted, there were amendments that needed to be made to the legislation before it could be passed into law. The White Paper is proposing an overhaul of the country`s migration laws, with the aim of tightening rules around allowing migrants into the country. V.5310
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