Home Affairs arrests three more people over passport fraud
The suspects include two former Home Affairs officials and a member of the public. The alleged fraud took place in 2023 at the Bothaville Home Affairs office in the Free State and involved ten passport applications. The three appeared before the Bothaville Magistrate’s Court on 27 October. The case has been postponed to 20 January 2027.
The arrests follow an investigation by the department’s Counter Corruption Unit and the Hawks. They bring the total number of people arrested in connection with corruption at Home Affairs since July 2024 to 44. The department has also dismissed 98 officials.
According to Home Affairs, the suspects allegedly exploited weaknesses in outdated systems to obtain South African passports fraudulently by swapping photographs on applications. The department says it has since introduced biometric verification measures to close some of the loopholes previously used to commit passport fraud.
Minister Dr Leon Schreiber says the department is committed to holding those involved in corruption accountable while using technology to prevent similar cases from happening in future.
He says the aim is not only to investigate corruption after it happens, but also to strengthen the department’s systems to make fraud more difficult.
