Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi has noted that fake marriages are on the rise in SA, adding to the challenges faced by the department as it tries to clear up a major backlog in visa applications.

BusinessTech reports that this was revealed in a parliamentary session, in which Motsoaledi addressed the current backlog of processing applications for temporary residence visas.

A leaked memo from the State Attorney’s office to the Department of Home Affairs revealed the backlog is now sitting at more than 95 000 applications. Of these, the backlog in temporary residency visas has remained unchanged at more than 74 000 since the department’s last report at the end of October 2023.

As a result, Motsoaledi extended the time frame to address the backlog, with the deadline pushed back from June to November. Although there are several reasons for the backlog, Motsoaledi noted that approximately 86% of the temporary residence visa backlog consists of ‘relationship visas’, and a concerning amount of them are fraudulent.

‘The department is experiencing significant and ever-increasing challenges with regards to the legitimacy of relationships being claimed or cited as a reason for applying for these visas,’ he said.

‘Some foreign nationals have taken advantage and get into corruption to legitimise themselves, family members, friends and others.' 

BusinessTech reports that he explained that marriages of convenience are the largest category.

From January 2023 to November 2023, 1 614 fraudulent marriages were flagged, and 1 102 were expunged. The remainder are still under further investigation.

Full BusinessTech report