General News

SA Home Affairs official sentenced for passport fraud

Date: Aug 2, 2024

A South Africa’s KwaZulu-Natal-based Department of Home Affairs official, Judith Zuma, has been sentenced to 35 years imprisonment by the Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court for her involvement in a large-scale fraudulent passport scheme.

An investigation conducted by the Hawks and the Department revealed that Zuma was facilitating a criminal network operating outside her jurisdiction at the Richards Bay Home Affairs office.

Zuma paid South African citizens to provide their fingerprints for the creation of illegal passports for foreign nationals.

Hawks Spokesperson, Colonel Philani Nkwalase says, “She was aiding a criminal network outside her jurisdiction at Richards Bay Home Affairs office, exploited vulnerable South Africans by luring them with money ranging between R300($16,50) and R500($27,50) for fingerprints used to obtain passports for foreign nationals. She pleaded guilty on all 1159 charges.”

Zuma’s arrest followed an investigation by Home Affairs, which uncovered her collaboration with a foreign national syndicate.

The group colluded with South African citizens to assist foreign nationals from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and the Democratic Republic of Congo in acquiring South African passports using the identity documents and biometric data of South African citizens.

The foreign nationals subsequently replaced the original photographs with their own and assumed the identities of the South African citizens.

--ChannelAfrica/Minoshni Pillay--

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