South African green ID book and passport problem

South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has a massive fraud problem, with many workers at Gauteng-based businesses carrying fraudulent asylum documents, work permits, and other forms of identity.

A Gauteng business owner recently told MyBroadband that, faced with the DHA and Department of Labour raids in the province, directors preemptively started using email and SMS avenues to verify staff documents.

They could do this by getting staff to sign a consent form before submitting the documents to the [email protected] email address.

“We have a Home Affairs email address to send the asylum (or work permits) to, along with a signed consent. They then come back with a verification,” the owner told MyBroadband.

“It’s an ongoing process, but for a number of them, Home Affairs have no record of the document, so we have to assume it is fake and terminate employment.”

“We have no idea who is issuing these documents,” they added.

When it comes to ID verification, the business’s directors can send an SMS containing an ID number to a DHA number, which confirms the name and date of birth associated with the ID number.

Most IDs were verified to be legitimate. However, they noted one instance in which an ID number was verified to be correct but with no other details.

MyBroadband asked the DHA for comment on the outcomes of its raids and whether it has discovered a high number of workers with fraudulent documents, but it hadn’t answered our questions by publication.

In a recent presentation before the Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, the DHA’s Counter Corruption and Security Services branch highlighted several criminal cases related to fraud it is investigating in the 2024/25 financial year.

While some of the incidents don’t relate to asylum, ID, passport, or workers permit fraud, there are several that do, including:

• An official in Bethlehem received R10,000 for facilitating a passport for a foreigner who stole a South African citizen’s identity
• Officials in Nelspruit and Randfontein assisted foreigners in applying for smart identity cards with stolen identities
• An incident in Nelspruit where a foreigner stole a South African’s identity, and another citizen acted as their guardian to enable them to apply for a smart ID card

It also listed several other transgressions relating to fraudulent birth certificates and registrations to apply for South African Social Security Agency grants.

During the same presentation, the Counter Corruption and Security Services branch revealed that it had busted various individuals involved in a syndicate that helped businesses bring in illegal foreigners on forged documents.

It also nabbed the syndicate’s kingpin.

It revealed that 34 individuals had been dismissed from the DHA, of which 13 received jail sentences. The most severe sentencing was to 26 years, while the kingpin was sentenced to 18 years.

The syndicate helped bring in foreign nationals by issuing them South African passports through photo swap fraud.

“Photo swap happened whereby a South African identity holder colluded with a foreign national and DHA official; both will visit Home Affairs to apply for a South African passport,” the DHA explained.

“During the process, the corrupt official will capture the photo of the foreigner so that the passport is issued bearing the picture of the foreigner with the details of the South African citizen.”

The whistle-blower who alerted the DHA about the syndicate claimed that the kingpin worked with DHA officials to get into Home Affairs offices after hours, adding that they had contact with officials who could access department systems during the day.

“He would travel to different Home Affairs Offices to be assisted with the photo swap accompanied by Home Affairs Officials,” the DHA said.

The syndicate operated out of 16 DHA branches, several of which were located in Gauteng, Limpopo, the Eastern Cape, the Western Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal.

It also targeted one branch in each Mpumalanga and the Free State.