Passport fraud risk mistrust of SA documents abroad
Overseas travel by South Africans to be affected – expert
Identity thieves and South Africans who sell their personal information to illegal foreigners are putting the country at the risk of being severely scrutised for international travelling, says independent crime and policing analyst Prof Johan Burger.
Burger was reacting to the arrest of 500 people accused of luring South Africans to sell their personal information to foreigners who want to come into the country illegally. In some cases, the foreigners apply for passports and other traveling documents using details of South Africans they have paid.
Burger said SA’s identity system could be compromised if identity fraud syndicates are not stopped by authorities.
It is a very dangerous situation ... if these syndicates are not stopped they could compromise the whole identity system of this country in terms of home affairs. You would find eventually that other countries could tighten up the control in terms of South African ID documents.
They would simply argue that they cannot rely on the South African authorities in terms of assuring that our system is effective and protected against fraud. It could compromise the credibility of all South African identity documents and make it difficult for South Africans to travel abroad,” said Burger.
Yesterday police said they were looking for four foreigners who are using South African names and are part of the racket that targets desperate South Africans.
Nhlanhla Mathebula, 39, Mohamed Ali, 36, Gabriel Samuel van der Merwe, 32, Christopher Marillier, 38, and Sfiso Kheswa, 30, were arrested by the Hawks Serious Corruption Investigation team based in Mbombela, Mpumalanga, on May 19 in Eldorado Park, Johannesburg, and White River in Mpumalanga.
They are facing charges of fraud, corruption and contravening the Immigration Act and will appear in court this week for their formal bail application. The accused appeared at the White River magistrate’s court on Friday and their case was postponed to tomorrow for their bail application.
Mpumalanga Hawks spokesperson Capt Dineo Sekand gotodi said “Investigations revealed that on October 13 2021, Mathebula colluded with the alleged kingpin, Ali from Pakistan, who recruited South African citizens to offer their personal details in order for foreigners to get South African passports using them in exchange of payment.
“South African citizens would use their particulars
fingerprints to apply for the passports but the photos of foreign nationals would be the ones captured. This was reportedly facilitated by home affairs officials working after hours. The South African citizens were allegedly paid R500 each for the use of their particulars by the foreign nationals.”
Sekgotodi said Mathebula works at home affairs.