Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, has welcomed the sentencing of a Pakistani national, Arfan Ahmed, for corruption and bribery of Home Affairs officials at the Krugersdorp Home Affairs office with R45 000.
The department said that Ahmed was arrested after a sting operation involving the Counter Corruption Branch of Home Affairs, the Hawks, and the Police Crime Intelligence at the Krugersdorp Home Affairs office in March 2022.
This week, the Krugersdorp Regional Court sentenced Ahmed who is believed to be the kingpin of the passport photo swap with ties to Gauteng, KZN and other provinces to an effective 18 years imprisonment. He received a 10-year jail sentence for his involvement in passport syndicate activity and eight years for possessing multiple passports found at his home.
Reacting to Ahmed’s sentencing, Motsoaledi said the syndicate had worked tirelessly to undermine the country’s laws by fraudulently procuring passports for Pakistani nationals who didn’t have the right to possess them.
Ahmed colluded with corrupt Home Affairs officials in a network that covered Gauteng, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Western Cape, and Mpumalanga.
“The courts are sending a strong message that crime does not pay. We’ve been waiting patiently for the sentencing of this kingpin for his role in the Krugersdorp passport syndicate,” said Motsoaledi.
The department has for more than two years been clamping down on corruption and fraud involving some of its officials who collude with identity and passport fraud syndicates.
According to home affairs, a search and seizure operation was conducted by the law enforcement agencies at Ahmed’s home where multiple passports which were not supposed to be there were found.
“This is an illustration that in our unflinching commitment to uproot fraud, corruption and all sorts of crimes bedevilling our country, we make sure that kingpins and their lieutenants face the full might of the law.”
The minister said his department had adopted a hard stance against corruption involving its officials as the citizens of this country suffered the most due to passport fraud.
“Every single South African is a victim because we are now forced to apply for visas when we visit countries such as the United Kingdom. This was not the case before syndicates like these denigrated our passports,” said Motsoaledi.
Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court this week, ruled against the minister after it found that he had unlawfully terminated the Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEP). Motsoaledi had approached the apex court following his loss against the Helen Suzman Foundation at the SCA in February.
Despite the Minister’s attempts to appeal the decision, including in applications to the High Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal, the Constitutional Court dismissed his application for special leave to appeal on June 18, 2024. The country’s highest court found that the application had no reasonable prospects of success.
Saturday Star
siyabonga.sithole@inl.co.za