Bushiri’s home affairs
capture
City Press – 22 August 2021
Investigators
unearth ‘mind-numbing’ evidence on how officials aided and abetted fugitive
pastor.
Fugitive
preacher Shepherd Bushiri so effectively captured the department of home
affairs that he had several of its directors, adjudicators, clerks and even an
MP acting in unison to circumvent the law and smooth the way for him.
City
Press has uncovered evidence of how some senior individuals jumped through
hoops to secure permanent residency permits for fraud accused Bushiri, his wife
Mary and their two young children.
The
department has now suspended its permits section’s senior and junior staff
members found to have allegedly had a direct hand in the fraudulent process and
approval of the Bushiris’ permanent residence applications.
It has
subsequently taken disciplinary action against them.
Mutangwa was supposed to have
recused himself from adjudicating Bushiri’s application.
An official close to the
investigation
The
officials include chief director: permits, Ronney Marhule, assistant directors
Jurgen Von Wielligh and Elmon Mndawe and permitting adjudicators Maanda
Mutangwa and Thobela Mange.
City
Press has seen the charge sheets against these officials. The charges include
gross dishonesty, gross negligence and noncompliance with the Immigration Act,
regulations and standard operating procedures.
WEB OF
EVIDENCE
Insiders close
to the investigations into Bushiri’s departmental capture say the investigators
uncovered “disturbing information that our state security has, and is, being
used” to move Bushiri in and out of the country while he is a fugitive.
The
couple fled to Malawi last year while on bail in the fraud and money laundering
case.
Some of
the suspended senior officials have allegedly approached senior ANC and
government leaders to seek a “political solution” to the charges against them.
They are also lobbying for the criminal action against them to be stopped.
Home
Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi is said not to be entertaining any
conversations on the case and any other matters related to the Bushiris and the
implicated officials given that “he is fully aware of the tremendous amount of
political pressure his team is being placed under to make this go away”.
Investigators
stumbled on an amazing web of evidence revealing and connecting how the
department’s directors worked to pave the way for Bushiri and his wife’s
applications for permanent residence.
This was
despite the many red flags which would ordinarily have had the applications
thrown out.
HOW THE
RESIDENCY PERMITS WERE PUSHED THROUGH
Evidence
seen by City Press suggests that Bushiri’s alleged capture of the permit
section started in March 2016, following the submission of his and his family’s
applications for permanent residence at the South African embassy in Malawi’s
capital, Lilongwe.
It’s the
events that follow which riled Motsoaledi and director-general Tommy Makhode,
when investigators briefed them on the rot in the department. The investigations
revealed how, among other findings:
. An MP
approached a coordinator at the National Assembly “to assist with an enquiry
for an application of Mr SH Bushiri” which was subsequently sent through to the
department’s chief director: permits section, Marhule for processing;
.
Reference numbers for the Bushiris’ applications were unlawfully created by the
department’s adjudicator, Mange, without having received the original
application documents from Lilongwe. It would later appear that Marhule failed
to inform the investigators that he had sent Bushiri an email in February 2016,
advising him on the application process to follow. This move would later see
both men, along with other officials, facing serious criminal charges; and
.
Officials deliberately and fraudulently manipulated the Bushiris’ applications
to ensure their smooth passage through the system without incident.
OFFICIALS’
BEHAVIOUR WAS ‘SERIOUSLY MIND-NUMBING’
Evidence
before the Hawks and the department further revealed how senior officials
processing the Bushiris’ applications turned a blind eye to a bank statement
the self-proclaimed pastor attached – reflecting church offerings and tithes –
to his application that had been issued in the name of Shepherd Bushiri
Investment (Pty) Ltd Ministries.
“There is
no explanation to justify why the attached bank statement for a [church]
ministry was utilised to support an application for a company listed in the
application – namely Shepherd Bushiri Investments (Pty) Ltd. The said bank
statement was utilised to recommend approval for permanent residence despite
the fact that Prophet Bushiri Ministries NPC is a nonprofit organisation.
“A
nonprofit organisation cannot be regarded as a business. The bank statement for
Prophet Shepherd Bushiri Ministries NPC clearly shows that the money in the
account was generated locally – deposits from church goers, tithes and
offerings. The money is thus not the personal funds of [Bushiri], but that of
the church,” read the findings of one of the investigation reports seen by City
Press.
The
investigation further revealed the extraordinary lengths that one adjudication
official, Mutangwa, would go to, when they proceeded with Bushiri’s application
rather than flagging it for being in violation of his visitor’s visa condition
by working without a permit. Not only did the official ignore the red flags, he
changed the status of Bushiri’s application in order to protect it from
scrutiny.
“Mr
Mutangwa was fundamentally grossly negligent in that he intentionally changed
the application form,” the report reads.
An
official close to the investigation said the significant amount of evidence
showing the lengths to which officials went to secure Bushiri and his family’s
permanent residency permits was “seriously mind-numbing” as investigators
“couldn’t understand the motivation to commit such fraud by some officials such
as Mutangwa”.
Further
probing uncovered that Mutangwa knew Bushiri personally and was in fact
moonlighting as the controversial pastor’s bodyguard.
“Mutangwa
is a close acquaintance of Bushiri as he is alleged to be his personal
part-time security guard. Mutangwa was supposed to have recused himself from
adjudicating Bushiri’s application. The personal relationship could have
affected his objectivity.
“Mutangwa’s
Facebook posts indicate a case of a personal relationship between the two,” the
report states.
There is no reasonable
explanation found to this effect. This could have been a reasonable ground for
refusal of the application.
Investigators in the report
Mutangwa,
along with his immediate superviser, Von Wielligh, are on suspension pending disciplinary
action.
Investigators
found that Von Wielligh had acted negligently in that he passed Bushiri’s
applications during a quality assurance process, despite the pastor having
already violated the condition of his visitor’s visa “for conducting work in
the republic without a work permit”.
“This
information is readily available on the departmental records and the copies of
the visas were attached to Bushiri’s application for permanent residence,” read
the findings in the report.
City
Press has also been told that at the time of adjudicating Mary Bushiri’s
application for permanent residence, information regarding a fraudulent
exemption certificate was on the department’s records “but was not requested by
the processing officials”.
An
exemption certificate is one of the documents foreign nationals need to secure
a South African identity document.
“There is
no reasonable explanation found to this effect. This could have been a
reasonable ground for refusal of the application,” investigators noted in the
report.
Makhode
declined to comment on the allegations. “Whether or not the allegations have
merit, we do not comment on the department’s internal processes,” said the
director-general.
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