Former Home Affairs official held for ‘selling passports to foreigners’

A FORMER employee of the Department of Home Affairs arrested for fraud and corruption will spend the weekend behind bars.

Malusi Mlondo, 34, who was employed by the Department of Home Affairs in the Pietermaritzburg office, was arrested in a joint operation by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks) and Home Affairs Counter Corruption members.

KZN Hawks spokesperson Captain Simphiwe Mhlongo said Mlondo is alleged to have processed fraudulent passports for foreign nationals at the Durban office in February 2023.

“He allegedly received payments of up to R3000 per document.”

Mhlongo said it is further alleged that Mlondo used details of South African citizens together with the identity photos of the foreign nationals.

“A case of fraud and corruption was reported at the Durban Central police station and the case dockets were allocated to Hawks members for further investigation.”

Mlondo appeared briefly in the Durban Specialised Commercial Crime Court yesterday and was remanded in custody.

The case was postponed to Monday for a bail application.”

In April, a Home Affairs official in Limpopo, Mdunwazi Ngwenyama, was handed a 14-year jail term after registering and issuing a bogus birth certificate for someone who did not exist.