Foreigners have been able to buy their way into SA on fake documents with the help of Home Affairs officials who treated the visa system like an open marketplace, according to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

TimesLIVE reports that the findings were part of a presentation the SIU gave to Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Higher Education yesterday.

Investigators said they have uncovered ‘a co-ordinated study visa fraud system inside Home Affairs, where corrupt officials helped approve applications backed by fake acceptance letters and other fraudulent documents’.

The SIU said applications were fast-tracked through inside contacts and money paid to officials or to their spouses and businesses to make it happen. The payments were moved through EFT transfers, cash send and ATM deposits.

According to the SIU, the scheme typically worked as follows: fake or inflated acceptance letters were produced by schools or colleges, some of which were not even properly registered or were not involved in the applications at all. Those would then be pushed through Home Affairs via WhatsApp or other informal channels for quick approval, with bribes paid in cash, through e-wallets, or into accounts linked to officials’ spouses to disguise the corruption.

Some officials reportedly used side channels and dummy phones to avoid being detected.

The SIU said foreigners were routinely able to obtain study visas by submitting fraudulent supporting documents, including letters confirming registration at institutions of higher learning, fake medical certificates, forged radiologist certificates, fraudulent medical aid membership numbers and falsified criminal record verifications.

The SIU also found that Home Affairs adjudicators failed to verify or simply overlooked the fraudulent documents before granting the visas.

Once in the country, many of the foreigners did not attend the colleges or universities named in their applications at all. Instead, the SIU found that they opened businesses that went on to receive millions of rands, some of which was paid back to department officials.

The SIU found that once a study visa expires, many foreigners apply to change their status to a different temporary visa, such as a retired person’s visa or a visitor’s visa, to stay in the country.

Others simply remain in SA without a visa once their study permit lapses.

The SIU also raised concerns about the asylum system being used as a back door into permanent residence and eventually citizenship, with Home Affairs officials allegedly soliciting bribes to process asylum seekers’ applications, notes TimesLIVE.

The SIU raised several further red flags in its observations to the committee. These included the issuing of blank corporate visas, which it said are open to manipulation and fraud, identity fraud used to obtain SA passports for use in committing crimes abroad, and a lack of any monitoring of visa holders once their permits have been issued. 

The most alarming was a finding relating to DNA testing, which the SIU described as ‘swapping and/or manipulation of the DNA to favour the foreign nationals to obtain’ permanent residence permits, a matter the SIU says will require a new proclamation to investigate fully.

The SIU said its work at Home Affairs has so far led to seven disciplinary referrals against departmental officials and 278 referrals to the NPA for possible criminal prosecution.

A further 205 administrative referrals have been made to the department, recommending the revocation of study visas and the deportation of those implicated.

Full TimesLIVE report