Corrupt officials made millions selling permanent residency permits
- The Special Investigation Unit (SIU) held a press conference to disclose the results of an investigation into Home Affairs on Monday.
- Four officials who earn less than R25,000 a month received a total of R16-million in direct deposits, SIU acting head Leonard Lekgetho said.
- He said among the beneficiaries of corruption were religious figures including pastors and prophets such as Shepherd Bushiri who had “leveraged his influence, church networks and fabricated documentation to secure immigration status”.
- Minister of Home Affairs Leon Schreiber described steps to stamp out corruption in the department.
By Tania Broughton
A slide presented by the SIU at a press conference on Monday.
Newly appointed acting head of the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) Leonard Lekgetho urged whistleblowers to spill the beans on members of their communities who drive “flashy cars”.
“We thank the whistleblowers who direct us where we need to go. These (crooked) officials live in our communities, they are driving flashy cars. Call the hotline. We need to work together,” he said. He was speaking at a media briefing in which he gave details of the unit’s probe into corruption at the Department of Home Affairs.
He said the entire investigation, which was approved by President Cyril Ramaphosa through a proclamation in 2024, was founded on allegations of a whistleblower regarding syndicates operating within the visa and permit system.
The SIU, with the Hawks, had targeted five refugee centres, confiscating computers, phones and files.
Read the SIU report
The evidence showed officials were being paid, through eWallet, their spouses bank accounts or “in kind”, between R300 and R5,000 to issue fraudulent visas and permanent residence permits to those who did not qualify.
Lekgetho said: “Officials are selling citizenship to fund a luxurious life.”
“We can reveal that so far we have uncovered that four officials who earn less than R25,000 a month, received a total of R16-million in direct deposits.
“This group has acquired significant assets grossly disproportionate to their legal income.”
He said they had bought using cash, or built high-value residential properties, with large scale solar installations and spacious parking lots.
“The scale of enrichment is staggering.”
“Analysis of a construction company registered in the name of one official’s husband revealed deposits totalling R8.9-million between 2020 and 2023,” he said, with some of the deposit references being “PRP” – indicating permanent residence permit.
“Another official accumulated so much wealth, she built a mansion and a paved road leading up to it – all on a monthly salary of R25,000.”
He said among the beneficiaries of corruption were religious figures including pastors and prophets such as Shepherd Bushiri who had “leveraged his influence, church networks and fabricated documentation to secure immigration status”.
Pastor Timothy Omotso had also gained entry to South Africa through fraudulent means.
Through another whistleblower, the SIU unearthed that Kudakwashe Mpofu had paid R3,000 for his permanent residence permit, and had later secured high paying positions at the state-owned North West Development Corporation. He was convicted and sentenced to three years correctional supervision.
Lekgetho said the SIU was hoping the NPA would appeal the [lenient] sentence.
He said the SIU could take no further action against those implicated because no public money was involved. But it was liaising closely with the NPA to ensure prosecutions.
“The findings make one thing clear: South Africa’s immigration system was treated as a commodity. Permits and visas were sold, traded and laundered. These findings show that corruption in the visa system is not incidental; it is organised, deliberate and devastating to the public trust.”
The SIU has made a number of recommendations to the department, which Home ffairs Minister Leon Schreiber said were being taken seriously.
Addressing journalists, he was at pains to point out that it was only a small number of low-level officials involved in the fraud and corruption.
He pointed out that he had inherited the problem “which is the result of up to 20 years of maladministration and malfeasance”.
Schreiber said the goal was to restore the rule of law within the department.
This would be achieved through uncovering and investigating fraud and corruption, to enforce accountability for those responsible and to use digital transformation to drive reform and close the institutional loopholes, caused mainly by a system which is paper-based.
He said 20 officials had been dismissed since April last year. Over the past two financial years, 75 disciplinary cases had been completed, resulting in 16 suspensions without pay and 22 written warnings.
The department had also identified more than 2,000 study visas fraudulently obtained and processes were underway to cancel them.
Since the introduction of the Electronic Travel Authorisation system (ETA) more than 30,000 applications for tourist visas have been declined through biometric testing and document authenticity.
The plan, the minister said, was to scale up the ETA to include other visas.
“By the end of this administration, every visa to enter South Africa in every category, must be processed only through this automated and biometrically-secured technology,” Schreiber said.
“This will close each and every loophole.”
© 2026 GroundUp. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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Picture: Facebook/Prophet Shepherd Bushiri
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