The Department of Home Affairs has secured another two arrests through coordinated operations targeting corruption and fraud as the Department intensifies its crackdown on criminality within immigration and civic services systems. These latest breakthroughs bring the total number of arrests linked to Home Affairs-related corruption and fraud cases in May 2026 thus far to six.

Both arrests were the result of close collaboration between investigators from the Department’s Counter Corruption and Security Services branch and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation.

In the first operation, a naturalised foreign national was arrested at the Harrison Home Affairs office in Johannesburg on Tuesday, 12 May 2026, during a targeted operation conducted by the Department.

The arrest follows an investigation into allegations that the suspect falsely claimed paternity of five foreign children, leading to their fraudulent registration on the National Population Register under a naturalised South African identity document. 

In a second operation conducted at the White River Home Affairs office on 11 May 2026, a senior immigration officer was arrested on charges of corruption following an entrapment operation.

The arrest relates to allegations that the official demanded payment before returning identity and travel documents belonging to a Mozambican national. The official was arrested during an authorised entrapment operation by the department.

The Minister of Home Affairs, Leon Schreiber, said: “We are now securing dismissals, arrests and prosecutions on a near-weekly basis as Home Affairs ramps up our cleanup operation. Every crooked official and complicit member of the public must know that it is now only a matter of time until their turn arrives. As our crackdown accelerates, the days of sleeping soundly are over for the corrupt, as they now need to spend every moment wondering when it will be their turn. My answer to them, is simple: sooner than you think. We will not rest until we have rid Home Affairs of every single rotten apple through this combination of dismissals and criminal convictions.”

Media Enquiries:

Carli van Wyk – Spokesperson to the Minister, Cell: 079 166 3899

ISSUED BY THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS