Cape Town – Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber has reported that, one year into the five-year term of the Government of National Unity (GNU), the department has begun making progress in combating corruption and holding officials accountable.
Schreiber said this while delivering a speech at the University of Johannesburg’s Combatting Corruption Summit on on Friday, 5 September.
He warned that South Africa was becoming a syndicate society, rife with corruption, and noted that the Home Affairs Department was not spared, referencing the Gupta family and state capture as examples.
“Syndicates formed wherever services of value had to be rendered.
“From visas to the green bar-coded ID book, weaknesses in the system of document issuance were engineered and exploited, enabling syndicates to extract bribes in order to issue documents to people who were not entitled to it.
“Whether it was a Minister irregularly issuing a naturalisation certificate to a Gupta family member who was not entitled to it, or an official issuing an ID book to someone who did not qualify for it, corruption had become an accepted norm that infected the system and culture, from top to bottom,” said Schreiber.
However, he affirmed that, since his appointment and with the involvement of the GNU within the department, corruption will not be condoned.
Instead of dishing out citizenship to the Guptas, we’re now dishing out accountability to corrupt officials. Home Affairs and BMA dismissed 54 crooked officials since July 2024, and using technology to close the loopholes exploited by syndicates.
Speech: https://t.co/WSlAaLWaL5 pic.twitter.com/SQYhuV4C2c
— Leon Schreiber (@Leon_Schreib) September 5, 2025
Schreiber said that individual accountability and the entire ecosystem that included the Border Management Authority (BMA) and the Government Printing Works (GPW), has been the first step in dismantling syndicates created from years of corruption.
“A key part of our success is the partnership that involves a team of forensic experts led by former Director-General in the Presidency, Dr Cassius Lubisi, who have used big data analytics to pinpoint officials involved in visa fraud, as well as the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) and law enforcement partners.
“This partnership culminated in the formalisation of the Border and Immigration Anti-Corruption Forum earlier this year.
“This collaborative approach ensures impartiality and objectivity, eliminating the potential for internal biases or cover-ups that have plagued such proceedings in the past.
“Thanks to our commitment to enforcing individual accountability, and this collaborative approach, we have so far dismissed a total of 54 officials from the Department of Home Affairs and the BMA between July 2024 and August 2025 for offenses including fraud, corruption, and misconduct”, said Schreiber.
He added that they will not stop there and confirmed that 8 individuals have already been convicted and have been sentenced to 18 years each, while 40 disciplinary cases, including 31 from the Department and nine from GPW, are set to be conducted within the next few months.
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Confirmed by Anda Tolibadi
