The certificate, however, was found to be fake and was produced four months after the stamp was stolen.
This has now led to the arrest of a woman working as a cleaner at a home affairs office for allegedly selling a birth certificate to an undocumented Mozambican national for R6,000 after being linked to the crime by a bank statement.
The cleaner, Rhandzu Chauke, appeared at the Pretoria magistrate`s court yesterday. Two undocumented Mozambican nationals - Amerco Tibane and Lebogang Tibane also appeared in the high court.
Their arrests come at the time when fake and stolen IDs have been under the spotlight.
On Friday, minister of home affairs Leon Schreiber said the department has taken a decisive action against fraud involving identity books and cards. He said the move was to both resolve the decades-old issue of wrongfully blocked IDs while reducing the number of fraudulent documents in circulation.
Chauke, who lives in Atteridgeville, was arrested while knocking off at the department`s Centurion office on Thursday afternoon.
The 42-year-old woman appeared at the Pretoria magistrate`s court yesterday to face a charge of theft. Chauke is not a direct employee of home affairs but was hired through an independent contractor that has a contract with the department.
When she appeared in court yesterday, she kept her gaze on the floor and did not even look at her husband and other relatives who were in the gallery.
She was granted R1,000 bail.
Speaking to Sowetan after the court case, Chauke`s lawyer Adv Mkhacani Mashava said his client had revealed to police that she had been working with others at the Centurion home affairs office.
`We suspect that this woman is a middleman and everything is being blamed on her.
`She recently confessed to the police to working with other people at the same home affairs office. It seems she would be the one in which transactions are made through. The money would come from the people buying and would go through her to another person within the office.
`She seemed to be the one who would refer clients to the people in the office and obviously she herself was gaining something in this operation. So, there are more suspects that still need to be arrested. At this point it is not exactly clear whether the stamp was stolen by her or given to her by the workers there as part of the plan but that will need to be investigated.
`We expect that arrests would be made this week following her confession. That way all involved in the matter can make an appearance in court at once,` Mashava said.
Gauteng police spokeswoman Col Noxolo Kweza told Sowetan that earlier this month, a 24-year-old man went to home affairs in Centurion to apply for a smartcard.
The birth certificate he was using to apply for the smartcard bore a stamp that had been reported stolen at the office.
The home affairs official asked the man to return with his father.
Kweza said they then interviewed the man.
`It was established that he had purchased the said document from another lady who charged him R6,000 for it.
`The 24-year-old male was then placed under arrest for possession of fraudulent documents and also in relation to the Immigration Act for being in the country illegally. The father of the male suspect was also placed under arrest in terms of the Immigration Act for being in the country illegally.
`The detectives then followed up information regarding the seller of the document and were led to a female who is employed as a cleaner at the Centurion home affairs office. She, too, was placed under arrest for fraud and theft,` she said.
Sowetan understands that the stamp went missing in April 2023 and the man`s birth certificate was issued in August 2023.
The Mozambican man had gone to apply for a smartcard with that birth certificate bearing Tibane early this month when police were called.
A source said when Tibane went to apply for the smartcard, he went to the very same home affairs official whom the stolen stamp belonged to. The stamp was recognised by its unique quote.
During interrogation by the police, Tibane allegedly showed
police the account into which he sent the money and this led them to Chauke. .
Tibane and his father Amerco, who both live in Tembisa, also appeared at the Pretoria high court for their contravention of the Immigration Act charge and were denied bail.
Chauke was expected back in court on August 29.