This week our story is about a woman who is a former employee of Home Affairs that built a mansion in Limpopo, in her home village, Setlaboswane in Ga-Masemola. It is said that the home is luxurious with a tarred road leading up to her house and the proceeds to fund her luxury mansion allegedly come from a fraudulent visa scheme she ran.
The Special Investigating Unit’s (SIU) investigated the Home Affairs visa system and found that she had earned at least R1.3 million from the fraud scheme! Jeez!
She earned this by approving fraudulent visa applications that were submitted by foreigners. As an employee, her responsibility was to adjudicate all permit applications and she had approved 426 visas between 2021 and 2023. Yes, 426 visas!
According to the Special Investigating Unit, her official monthly salary from the government ranged between R25 000 to R30 000.
“Combined with the documented R1.3 million in suspicious payments and the 67% fraudulent approval rate for visa applications she adjudicated, this evidence establishes a compelling case for corrupt enrichment through abuse of official position,” said SIU.
It is also believed that some of her colleagues also earned more than R10 million over the three years that they ran the money laundering scheme collectively. They were pushing the money through a fake construction company. Woah! The investigation conducted by the SIU revealed that there is widespread corruption in South Africa. They found that a number of department officials were being paid between R500 and R3,000 via e-wallet to approve visas that were fraudulent.
“South Africa’s immigration system has been treated as a marketplace, where permits and visas were sold to the highest bidder,” said acting SIU head Leonard Lekgetho.
“Officials entrusted with safeguarding the integrity of the Department of Home Affairs instead turned their positions into profit-making schemes.”
DISCLAIMER! This content is for educational and informational purposes based on publicly available information.