The following remarks were delivered by the Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Leon Schreiber, at the release of the Special Investigating Unit’s interim report in terms of Proclamation 154 of 2024.
Acting Head of the SIU, Mr Leonard Lekgetho,
Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Mr Njabulo Nzuza,
Director-General of Home Affairs, Mr Tommy Makhode,
Deputy Directors-General from the Department of Home Affairs,
Senior management of the SIU,
Members of the media,
Ladies and gentlemen,
The interim report presented today by the Special Investigating Unit is a synopsis of the state of Home Affairs inherited by the seventh administration.
Indeed, in terms of Proclamation 154 of 2024 issued by President Cyril Ramaphosa, the SIU was mandated to investigate serious maladministration in relation to visa issuance and related matters for the period between 12 October 2004 and 16 February 2024.
In other words, what the SIU has presented to us today is the result of up to twenty years of maladministration and malfeasance.
Over the past twenty months of this administration, the Government of National Unity has moved with urgency and focus to address the root causes of these decades of damage.
Our goal is to restore the rule of law in Home Affairs, and our strategy to achieve this is based on three key pillars.
To uncover and investigate fraud and corruption, to enforce accountability on those responsible, and to use digital transformation to drive systemic reform that closes the scope for discretion, interference and manipulation.
In terms of pillar one, the SIU has done invaluable work under this proclamation, which has shed light on the root causes of visa corruption to an extent we have not seen before.
We believe in the expression that “sunlight is the best disinfectant.” For the first time, the SIU has helped us to shed light on the deepest and darkest crevasses of these processes.
By exposing both the alleged perpetrators and the systemic loopholes that enabled their manipulation, Home Affairs has been empowered to take decisive action against perpetrators who have gotten away with misconduct for far too long.
And that is exactly what we have done.
Perhaps the single most extraordinary and important finding of the SIU’s work, is that the bulk of the malfeasance was allegedly committed by a handful of officials.
Think about that for a moment.
By exploiting loopholes and the manual nature of visa processes, a mere handful of people had the ability to inflict all this damage on our country.
I can today announce that disciplinary processes against all implicated individuals are ongoing.
A total of 20 officials have already been dismissed since April last year.
I have also requested the Director-General to write to the Department of Public Service and Administration, as well as to the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, to ensure that these former officials are not reemployed elsewhere in the State while they undergo criminal proceedings.
Over the past two financial years, a total of 75 disciplinary cases have been completed, resulting in an additional 16 suspensions without pay and 22 written warnings.
This work has also led to a number of referrals for criminal prosecution, and I would encourage the National Prosecuting Authority to prioritise these cases as part of our collective efforts to restore the rule of law.
But we are not stopping there.
The Department has also identified over 2 000 study visas that were fraudulently issued through these syndicates.
Administrative processes are now underway to cancel these visas, and we will also ringfence any subsequent visas obtained by these same individuals to ensure that all irregularly-obtained documents are cancelled and that perpetrators are deported or prosecuted as required.
This brings us to the third pillar of our strategy.
As important as exposure and accountability are, it is only through systemic reform – anchored in digital transformation and the use of modern technology – that we can definitively close the space for corruption.
Digital transformation is the apex priority of Home Affairs under the GNU, and we have made extraordinary progress on this front over the past twenty months.
At the heart of our work to close the space for manipulation of visa processes is the Electronic Travel Authorisation.
As confirmed by the SIU, it is paper-based and manual processes that have long created space for crooked officials to overlook fraudulent documents or approve applications that do not meet the relevant regulatory requirements.
We are moving to shut down all of those manual processes and replacing them with new cutting-edge digital systems that leave no space for manipulation.
Home Affairs launched the first phase of the ETA ahead of the G20 leaders’ meeting last year.
To date, this new system has declined over 30 000 applications that did not meet the relevant requirements for tourist visas.
It does so by using machine learning to verify the authenticity of documents like passports.
The ETA also uses biometric technology to match an applicant’s face to their passport photo, which means that they cannot enter South Africa using fraudulent documents.
The ETA does all of this through rules-based decision-making that is overseen by the Department, but that cannot be manipulated by any official.
These are new capabilities that Home Affairs did not have prior to 2024.
Following the release of today’s SIU report, there can no longer be any doubt that the ETA is the single most powerful tool we have ever developed to clamp down on visa fraud.
Our challenge now is to scale it up with urgency.
Working together with the Border Management Authority and the South African Revenue Service, we are currently expanding facial recognition capabilities to all international airports and to our busiest land ports of entry.
Once this work is complete, we will scale up the ETA to become the central entry point for all tourist visas to South Africa.
This means that we will shut down all other tourist visa processing, including at South African missions abroad.
Once this is complete, we will further expand the ETA to additional visa categories, including study visas.
By moving all visa processing to the ETA, we are closing each and every one of the loopholes that were previously exploited to grant non-qualifying or fraudulent applications.
By the end of this administration, every visa to enter South Africa, from every visa category, must be processed only through the automated and biometrically-secured technology of the ETA.
Through the ETA, we will ensure that it is never again possible for a handful of officials to manipulate processes and cause such damage to our country.
The rollout of the ETA also links to our work to build an Intelligent Population Register to anchor a new Digital ID system, which will ensure that biometrics are recorded for every person in South Africa, and that biometric verification is used to protect our citizenship and identity system.
This is how we eliminate the scourge of identity theft by illegal immigrants, which is concentrated around the continued use of the green bar-coded identity book.
In driving all of these reforms, we must not forget the importance of culture change.
That is why I want to take a moment to thank the many hard-working officials who have embraced #TeamHomeAffairs and our vision to build a digital-first organisation based on our values of ethical conduct, courageous actions, innovative thinking, caring interactions, and solutions-oriented approaches.
In addition to restoring the rule of law, the reforms we are driving also serve to protect ethical officials.
To the Director-General and his team: this moment must serve as a clarion call for all members of #TeamHomeAffairs to turn our collective backs on the people who have brought shame to this organisation.
Now is the time for us to stand up and be counted as proud South Africans, who are determined to restore ethical conduct in all that we do.
Ladies and gentlemen,
This work, done in collaboration with the SIU, has been a watershed moment in Home Affairs’ quest to restore the rule of law.
I extend my sincere appreciation to the President for having authorised this proclamation, and to the SIU team for their partnership, professionalism, and unwavering commitment to rooting out corruption.
We will continue this work with you until its conclusion.
Above all else, the SIU has confirmed and reinforced that our commitment to driving digital transformation in order to close the space for discretion and manipulation is not only the correct strategy to eliminate visa corruption, but that it is also an urgent national priority.
Our resolve and commitment to not only holding accountable every official involved in malfeasance, but to building new, modern systems free from manipulation, has never been stronger.
It is this seventh administration that has the opportunity to chart this bold new course.
We now know that our strategy is the right one, and that we are moving with determination in the right direction.
What remains is for us to accelerate implementation, to ensure that the next twenty years of Home Affairs are better than the previous twenty.
We will not rest until this work is complete.
Thank you.
Media Enquiries:
Carli Van Wyk – Spokesperson to the Minister, Cell: 079 166 3899
ISSUED BY THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS