Office cleaner Rhandzu Chauke with family and lawyer outside the Pretoria magistrate’s court, this after appearing on the charge of theft of home affairs stamp.
The arrest of two undocumented Mozambican nationals in connection with the selling of fake IDs has lifted a lid on an alleged documents-for-cash scheme believed to be happening at the home affairs office in Centurion.
Police have confirmed that the men were part of a syndicate involved in the selling of the documents.
“I can confirm that two more suspects have been arrested linked to this syndicate. They were linked through information received during investigation and information followed up on,” said Gauteng police spokesperson Col Noxolo Kweza.
Fresh details in this case have emerged of how a Mozambican man was going around looking for undocumented migrants who want to buy fake IDs to legitimise their stay in SA.
A home affairs cleaner would then send names of undocumented migrants to someone who prints fake birth certificates and then marks them with a stamp stolen from her office.
Buyers of the fake documents would deposit the money for them into the cleaner`s bank account and she would then give everyone involved in manufacturing the fake documents their share.
The revelations about the work of the alleged syndicate comes at a time when the selling of fake documents is under the spotlight.
I can confirm that two more suspects have been arrested linked to this syndicate. They were linked through information received during investigation and information followed up on.
On Friday, home affairs minister Leon Schreiber published in the Government Gazette a call for the over 700,000 people whose IDs were blocked to provide written reasons and representations within 30 days for why their documents should not be cancelled.
Schreiber said through this move, home affairs aims to both resolve the decades-old issue of wrongfully blocked IDs while reducing the number of fraudulent documents in circulation.
Though unemployed, the arrested men, aged 35 and 47, are said to be driving Audis, have expensive watches as well as pricey luxurious furniture at their Sunnyside and Moreleta Park homes in Pretoria where they were arrested.
Their arrest on Tuesday came just a day after Rhandzu Chauke, who works as a cleaner at the department`s Centurion office, was granted bail over allegations that she was involved in the same fraudulent practices of selling documents.
Speaking to Sowetan on a condition of anonymity, a source close to the case said allegations were that the men, who came to SA illegally a few years ago and managed to get fake documents bearing Nguni names, work with Chauke in selling fraudulent documents.
The men allegedly got their own fake documents from a home affairs official who no longer works at the Centurion office.
`They only started working with Chauke last year after that official left,` the source said.
Chauke, who is alleged to be the middleman in the entire operation, was arrested last week Thursday and charged with theft over a stamp that went missing last year April.
It was linked to her when a 24-year-old undocumented Mozambican man wanting to apply for an ID arrived at the home affairs Centurion offices with a fake birth certificate bearing the missing stamp from August last year, four months after it went missing.
Kweza said when the man was asked where he got the fake birth certificate from, he said he had bought it for R6,000 from a cleaner working there.
Investigations were then done and the cleaner turned out to be Chauke.
Telling Sowetan how the alleged scam worked, the source said one of the arrested men, who is 47 years old, would act as a runner by looking for undocumented Mozambicans and Zimbabweans who wanted to buy SA identities.
Upon finding the `clients`, the man would refer them to Chauke. From there, Chauke would get the details of the person and give them to the 35-year-old man.
This 35-year-old man has connections to a man in Johannesburg who prints birth certificates.
The Johannesburg man would then print fake birth certificates and legitimise them with the stamp that was stolen from one of the home affairs officials working at the Centurion offices with Chauke.
After the documents have been printed, the 35-year-old man would then take them to Chauke.
`The buyers would then deposit the money into Chauke`s bank account.
`She would then make sure that everyone gets their cut and she give it to them via cash send,` said the source.
It is not yet known just how long these men have allegedly been involved in this scam but it is believed to have been years.
The source said the men were arrested after Chauke told police about them after her arrest over the stolen stamp.
The two men were expected to appear in court on Friday