CAPE TOWN - Minister of Home Affairs Leon Schreiber says since March, his department already reported 109 cases of document fraud to its counter corruption unit. Three officials have been convicted and sentenced during this same period. Schreiber has detailed the extent of the rot in a parliamentary reply to a question from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). The cases include a Pakistani national involved in a passport syndicate, bribing officials with R45,000 for a document. At least 15 Home Affairs officials are currently under investigation. Twelve of them have had criminal cases opened against them for selling birth certificates, assisting foreigners to acquire national documents, and doing passport photo swaps. At least two officials have been sentenced for selling birth certificates to Zimbabwean nationals for R1,000. Another official who was part of a syndicate for processing 192 passports in 2021 was sentenced to 12 years by the Durban Commercial Crimes Court in August. Schreiber says a multi-disciplinary approach has now been implemented after a tip-off that South Africans are helping foreign nationals to get passports using their personal details, but allowing Home Affairs officials to capture the photo of the foreign national.