06 April 2022

The Minister of Home Affairs Dr Aaron Motsoaledi welcomes the 15-year direct imprisonment sentence given to a corrupt immigration practitioner and an Ethiopian national who tried to defraud South African permits.

It must be noted that immigration practitioners are not employees of the Department of Home Affairs. They must not be confused with immigration officers who are uniformed Department of Home Affairs officials.

Immigration practitioners are private businesses that assist foreign nationals to apply for permits. In other words, they act as third parties in the application process. Unfortunately, some of these immigration practitioners are not affiliated to any professional statutory body that regulates their conduct. Alarmingly, some do not have verifiable business premises.

In a desperate bid to gain an advantage over their competitors, some of them have resorted to bribing corrupt Home Affairs officials to get the applications of their clients expedited.

The practice became so prevalent that the Department had to stop recognising and regulating them in 2014 when it amended the Immigration Act of 2002 and issued new regulations.

Anybody who needs a Home Affairs service can come and apply directly and do not need to involve a third party.

“This sentence reflects the severity of the crime. People who do not respect the country’s immigration laws must face the full might of the law,” said Minister Motsoaledi.

Minister Motsoaledi’s comments came after the Pretoria Magistrate Court sentenced Ms Nasi Seqola, an immigration practitioner and her accomplice, Mr Biru Yosef Alem, an Ethiopian national who is a holder of a permanent residence permit, to 15 years behind bars without an option of a fine.

Ms Seqola and Mr Alem were found guilty in October 2021 and were sentenced on 04 April 2022.

Ms Seqola tried to recruit an official from Government Printing Works (GPW) to print blank 5 000 permits. In return, the official was to be given R150 000. 

The official reported Ms Seqola’s advances to the Counter Corruption Branch which worked with other law enforcement officials to set up the sting. The 5 000 blank permits were printed by GPW and handed over to law enforcement officers. These permits were used in the sting and Ms Seqola paid the R150 000. The law enforcement officers moved in after the payment and took the cash and the permits. The permits were returned to GPW. This avoided what could have been a catastrophe in terms of permitting.

“We congratulate the patriotic GPW official who resisted huge amounts of money and remained honest to his job and his country,” said Minister Motsoaledi. 

In this scheme, Mr Alem would have recruited foreign nationals who do not qualify for South African permits, and for a fee, bring them to Ms Seqola who would have completed a fraudulent permit and then used her corrupt contacts at Home Affairs to insert such a permit in the data base.

“Some immigration practitioners have had a corrosive effect on Home Affairs service delivery. They corrupted a lot of Home Affairs officials and by extension tried to launch an attack on the sovereignty of our country,” said Minister Motsoaledi. 

Minister Motsoaledi said some immigration practitioners did not even hide their corrupt tendencies because they were advertising shorter turnaround times than the Home Affairs stipulated periods to process documents.

They did this presumably because they were confident of their abilities to leverage their corrupt networks to prioritise applications for them.

After Mr Alem has finished serving his time, he will be deported to the country of origin.

Enquiries:

Siya Qoza, 082 898 1657 (spokesperson for the Minister of Home Affairs)
David Hlabane, 071 342 4284 (media manager for the Department of Home Affairs)


ISSUED BY DEPARTMENT OF HOME AFFAIRS