As officials and law enforcement continue to fight the scourge of fake and fraudulent documentation, the Department of Home Affairs has confirmed that nearly 7 400 Zimbabweans were deported in the 2022/23 financial year.

This was revealed in a recent parliamentary response from the department to ActionSA MP Lerato Ngobeni.

Ngobeni had drawn attention to the department’s report of 36 647 fraudulent applications during the period.

 “The Home Affairs ministerial committee on the Issuance of permits and visas established that there were 35 479 of these applications that were rejected, of which 880 were approved, and 288 were in a
pending status.

 “Initial analysis indicates that 4 160 applicants, that had rejected applications, were successful in a later application, sometimes in an application for a different type of visa or permit,” the report read.

Which country had the highest number of fraudulent applications submitted?

Most of those who submitted false documentation in their applications came from Nigeria, 12 177.

Meanwhile, most deportations during the period were to Zimbabwe.

The ministry confirmed that 7 393, or 68%, of the 10 808 listed were sent across the border.

This was followed, on the list of countries recorded, by Malawi (3 020).

159 people were deported to Tanzania, while one each was sent back to Senegal, Algeria, and Gabon.

A task team

The committee had recommended in 2022 that an independent multidisciplinary task team be set up that includes attorneys, forensic investigators, analysts, and system experts.

This team would “fully investigate all the anomalies, fraudulent applications, corrupt activities, systemic
irregularities and maladministration and to make appropriate recommendations for criminal
prosecution, disciplinary action, removal from the system, recalling of visas, and the tracing
of offending foreign nationals for deportation”.

Fake IDs

In August, Home Affairs announced it had started the process to cancel blocked SA ID documents.

ID documents are generally blocked when their holder dies, if there is a duplicate, a query on its validity, or if there are suspicions it may have been involved in fraud.

The department gazetted a notice that anyone who had a blocked ID would have 30 days to explain why it should not be cancelled.

“Through this move, Home Affairs aims to resolve the decades-old issue of wrongfully blocked IDs while reducing the number of fraudulent documents in circulation,” it said.

The department revealed that some of these documents have been blocked for 19 years.