“From visas to the green bar-coded ID book, weaknesses in the system of document issuance were engineered and exploited, enabling syndicates to extract bribes in order to issue documents to people who were not entitled to it,” Schreiber said.

Speaking at the University of Johannesburg Combatting Corruption Summit, on Friday 5 September, Schreiber said the Department of Home Affairs was a ground zero site for the grand corruption project, known as State Capture.

“Over the years, that level of impunity cascaded throughout the administration, as Home Affairs sadly became synonymous not only with long queues and poor service delivery, but also with corruption,” Schreiber said.

Schreiber said corruption was not limited only to Home Affairs.

“This pattern of syndicated behaviour, where people inside government conspire with “tenderpreneurs” masquerading as private businesses, is visible throughout the state. As South Africa increasingly morphed into a syndicate society, Home Affairs was not spared,” the Minister said.

The Minister said syndicates formed wherever services of value had to be rendered.

“From visas to the green bar-coded ID book, weaknesses in the system of document issuance were engineered and exploited, enabling syndicates to extract bribes in order to issue documents to people who were not entitled to it.

“It was not by accident that one of my first acts as Minister was to revoke the citizenship of Gupta family members. But now, under the GNU, a very different message is going out,” the Minister said.

Schreiber said individual accountability is the first building block of government’s approach to washing the stain of corruption and State Capture from not only the Department of Home Affairs, but the entire ecosystem that includes the Border Management Authority (BMA) and the Government Printing Works (GPW).

“Through holding accountable people involved in corruption both inside and outside the department, we are dismantling the syndicates that took hold over many years,” the Minister said.

To date, Schreiber said a total of 54 officials from the department and the BMA have been dismissed between July 2024 and August 2025 for offenses including fraud, corruption and misconduct.

“This is a strong start, but we are far from done. We will not stop until we have purged each and every official who abuses their position for personal gain.

“Even more significantly, eight of these individuals have already been convicted and sentenced to prison terms of up to 18 years each, sending a clear message that there will be no impunity for those who betray the public trust,” the minister said.

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“On Monday, 28 July 2025, the Department of Home Affairs dismissed a further five officials, with immediate effect, for offences ranging from fraud to sexual assault. The total number of officials dismissed between July 2024 and July 2025 now stands at 38,” the Ministry of Home Affairs said.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Ministry said eight officials have already been convicted and sentenced to prison terms ranging from four to 18 years, while the criminal prosecution of another 19 is underway.

“These dismissals follow on the crackdown on a passport syndicate in Durban just last month, where two officials and three members of the public were arrested. These results demonstrate the growing success of Home Affairs in dealing with criminal syndicates both inside and outside the department,” said the Ministry.

Home Affairs Minister Dr Leon Schreiber said the days of defrauding the department are over.

“In just 12 months, we have already rid Home Affairs of 38 crooked and delinquent officials. I repeat my warning to anyone involved in corruption: the days of defrauding this department or committing acts of sexual harassment or abuse while relying on long drawn-out disciplinary processes, are over.”

The Minister thanked the department’s diligent officials, including those involved in accelerating disciplinary processes, who are playing a critical role “in our work to clean up Home Affairs”.

“Committed officials like these are the future of Home Affairs, as we continue to work together as #TeamHomeAffairs to clean out the corrupt elements that represent the past,” said the Minister.

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The department revealed it deported 39 672 people in 2023/24, and attributed the increase to improved collaboration between stakeholders, among others.

“This marked increase in the effectiveness of enforcement operations demonstrates our commitment to upholding the rule of law. It also flows from improved collaboration between the Department of Home Affairs, the Border Management Authority, the South African Police Service (SAPS) and local law enforcement. It further reflects the impact of joint initiatives like Operation Vala Umgodi,” Home Affairs Minister, Dr Leon Schreiber, said in a statement on Wednesday.

According to the department, “this is the highest number of deportations carried out in at least five years.”

In the five months between April and end August last year, the Department of Home Affairs deported 19 750 people at a cost of R52 million, Schreiber revealed in a parliamentary reply, equating to R2 670 per person.

In 2022/23, 10 808 people were deported, with the majority (7 393) being from Zimbabwe, followed by Malawi (3 020), Tanzania (159), and Nigeria (86).

Last month, the department announced a comprehensive upgrade to its digital verification system, a crucial component of national security, as well as both public and private sector services in South Africa.

The verification system enables government departments, including National Treasury and the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA), as well as financial sector businesses, to confirm client identities using biometric features, such as fingerprints and facial recognition, against the National Population Register.

“This improved performance, coupled with our digital transformation reforms that will automate entry-and-exit to prevent people from entering the country illegally through our ports of entry, is contributing to enhanced national security and trade facilitation,” the Minister said.

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“These actions reflect the Department’s intensified commitment to enforcing ethical governance and accelerating disciplinary and criminal sanctions against officials engaged in maladministration,” the DHA said in a 15 October statement.

The officials faced transgressions relating to irregular recruitment, violation of the Citizenship Act and the violation of the Immigration Act. Eight of the cases came from the Free State, followed by six cases from KwaZulu-Natal.

Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said: “While we are committed to empowering the many officials who uphold ethical governance and dignified service delivery within Home Affairs, we have zero tolerance for unethical conduct or corruption. As our accelerated action against errant conduct demonstrates, officials who fail to heed this message will soon find themselves out of Home Affairs and on their way to prison.”

One such official who failed to abide by the required standards of ethical conduct is Mogale Raseone, whose trial is set to start on 6 November. He is facing fraud charges. Raseone was dismissed from the Department last year after the conclusion of disciplinary processes. He was implicated by the Counter-Corruption Branch in multiple fraudulent transactions that benefitted mostly Pakistani nationals. He allegedly conducted this fraud by manipulating the systems Home Affairs uses to administer immigration.

Another official who is waiting to have her day in court is Dora Ncube, a suspended Border Management Authority (BMA) official who was recently arrested in Beitbridge while trying to smuggle six foreign nationals into the country.

“These cases make us even more determined to pursue digital transformation to close opportunities for manual and paper-based processes to be exploited towards corrupt ends. Digital transformation holds the key to uprooting corruption in our systems, while enhancing the efficiency of service delivery,” Schreiber said.

These prosecutions follow the recent conviction of two dismissed officials, Judy Zuma and Tony Stout, for similar crimes. Further arrests are expected as Home Affairs, the Special Investigating Unit (SIU), assisted by the Directorate of Priority Crimes Investigations (the Hawks), progresses with the implementation of Proclamation 154 of 2024.

The proclamation empowers the SIU to investigate serious maladministration and improper conduct in the Department relating to the issuance of various permits.

“Our determination to root out corruption is absolute, as winning this fight is essential to our vision of turning Home Affairs into a respected and ethical institution that delivers dignity to all our clients,” Schreiber concluded.

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Reflecting on case studies and recent discoveries made by the department, Schreiber pointed to “the lack of a modern digital system to process all applications, adjudications and communication at Home Affairs [as] the root cause of the national security threat we face in this sector.”

Schreiber went on to say that “the common denominator is that Home Affairs systems are vulnerable to fraud, corruption and discretion because they are outdated, antiquated, paper-based, manual and, therefore, open to subversion.”

Speaking on his department’s recent deportation of Libyan nationals, who were in South Africa on tourist visas, Schreiber revealed they obtained visas that were written by hand.

“How can South Africa regard ourselves as a serious nation when we still allow entrance into our country based on hand-written documents that even a child could forge?”

Among other irregularities discovered were visa applications which were processed even though they did not contain all the requisite documentation. Further, several applications were approved without verifying the information contained in the applications. Schreiber disclosed that overseas, Home Affairs is reliant on officials from another government department to process applications at foreign missions.

Commenting on the dire state of the department’s processes, Schreiber said “it would frankly be a dereliction of duty on the part of everyone in this room if we do not move with urgency to digitally transform Home Affairs. If we collectively fail to do so, the repercussions for national security will be on all of our hands.”

Schreiber stated that until Home Affairs transforms “into a digital-first department, these abuses will keep happening and the system will remain offline.”

“For as long as we fail to use technology to make up for the capacity shortfall and close the gaps for human discretion, it is not a question of ‘if’ abuses will be exposed,” said the Minister.

Calling for “bold steps,” Schreiber said if Home Affairs is not transformed into a digital-first department, “we will be wasting each other’s time for the next five years.”

The Minister emphasised that Home Affairs must be given the tools and support it requires, to not only address current concerns but to “start preventing fires into the future.” Schreiber went on to highlight “the sterling work being done” by the department in handling a backlog that accumulated for over a decade.

“This work is being done because we are focused on a clear goal, working collaboratively with partners in other departments and sectors of society, and embracing technology.

“The progress of the backlog project demonstrates that officials at Home Affairs are indeed capable of solving seemingly intractable problems if they are given the leadership, support and resources required.”

Schreiber implored members of Parliament to support his department, adding “South Africa can solve this problem, because we have done it before.” Referring to how the South African Revenue Service (SARS) embraced digital transformation, Schreiber noted SARS had become “one of the best state entities in the country,” and further, had become “one of the most effective tax authorities in the world.”

The department aims to introduce a digital platform to process all applications, adjudication and communication, similar to the systems at SARS, something which the Minister hopes “would not only restore our national security.”

Minister Schreiber noted South Africa is at a point where “we could decide to continue with things the way that they are, in which case we would doom South Africa’s national security and spend the next five years dealing with abuses but never preventing them. Or we could boldly go into the future by embracing digital transformation to decisively deal with fraud and corruption while fixing service delivery and creating jobs.”

Adding that “South Africa always defies expectations when we work together with one purpose,” Schreiber stated his department was determined to prove this once again.

The Minister closed his remarks by stating that the DHA now has a clear and unambiguous goal, “to rapidly transform this department into a digital-first organisation where fraud and corruption is not only combatted, but where it is prevented. This is how we will make Home Affairs work so that South Africa can work.”

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