Probe into the issuing of visas, permits

THE Department of Home Affairs will appoint a multidisciplinary task team to fully investigate all anomalies found in the issuing of permits and visas.

This comes after the ministerial review committee found a host of irregularities in the issuance of permanent residence permits, business visas, corporate visas, critical skills visas, study visas, retired persons visas and citizenship by naturalisation between October 2004 and December 2020.

Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi said the multidisciplinary task team would consist of experienced senior counsels, forensic investigators, data analysts and others.

“The team will do a deep-dive and may end up preparing dockets, trace people, prepare documents for possible disciplinary committee, go to court to recover government documents obtained fraudulently and where appropriate trace people who need to be deported,” Motsoaledi said.

The process to appoint the members of the soon-to-be-formed multidisciplinary task team was under way, he said. “Meanwhile, some Home Affairs officials fingered are already going through a disciplinary committee.”

In 2021, the minister announced a ministerial review committee led by former government director-general Dr Cassius Lubisi following a trend where prominent people were investigated by the department’s Counter Corruption Unit. In its report, the ministerial review committee found the department’s systems were not advanced enough to flag anomalies proactively.

Records from 2004-2014 were not computerised and were still manual.

The review committee could only work with data from 2014 onwards.

In its investigation, the committee found Home Affairs officials created fake users on the system and deliberately bypassed controls to manipulate visa and permit applications.

“The review found evidence of individuals actively manipulating visa and permit applications with the assistance of corrupt Home Affairs officials. Some of these actors have been identified.”

The report said 12 officials who had petitioned Motsoaledi to stop the Counter Corruption Unit from investigating “their errors” were linked to irregularities in the award of visas and permits. The report said some permanent residence permits were approved before five years with no continuous period of residence; and some that were previously declined due to false documentation, were also approved.