Exterior shot of the court, with a man in a long black legal cloak walking in the foreground. The Durban Magistrate’s Court is to sentence officials of the Department of Home Affairs for issuing fraudulent passports. Picture: Tumi Pakkies/ African News Agency (ANA)
Durban — The Durban Magistrate’s Court will on Wednesday sentence two Home Affairs officials for issuing fraudulent passports to foreign nationals.
The pair, Anda Ngozi and Nomthandazo Eunice Mboyana, are charged with more than 300 counts which include fraud and the contravention of the Immigration Act 68 of 1997. The pair issued the passports for R3 000-R5 000 during the period January 5, 2020 to February 9, 2020. They pleaded guilty.
The State said these officials, unlawfully and wrongfully acted in common purpose with others to defraud and misrepresent the Department of Home Affairs that the applications for the passports which they processed or caused to be processed were legitimate, true and correct in all aspects and that correct procedures were followed.
The State said the applications for the passports that were processed by the pair at the Home Affairs Commercial Road, Durban, and at Prospecton were not legitimate. It said the photos and information captured were not correct.
“The said applications were actually being processed for persons whose true identities and personal particulars are unknown to the State, using the details of South African citizens, and they were not authorised to process the said unauthorised passport applications,” said the State.
Senior State prosecutor, advocate Abbey Letsholo, said he knew that the defence said the accused showed remorse by pleading guilty to their charges, however, these were serious offences. He said the pair were convicted of serious offences which were carefully planned. He said the accused worked in Queenstown, but they were able to come and get to the offices that they were not stationed at.
“These offences happened for a long time and they were working with others,” said Letsholo.
He told the court that whatever sentences it wanted to give to the accused, it needed to take into consideration that the offences were carefully planned. He said the fact that Ngozi was a first-time offender did not mean that the court should not sentence him.
He further said the court learned that Mboyana is the primary caregiver for her children, but that does not mean she should not face the consequences of her actions.
“The court would have to make sure that the rights of the children are not violated,” he said.
Letsholo said the accused should have known better as they knew that they were breadwinners.
He reminded the court that corruption “has become cancer in our society”, and urged it to imprison the pair.
Letsholo added and said the department had employed them permanently and had trusted them.
The provincial manager at the Department of Home Affairs, Cyril Mncwabe, who was in court, said they were happy that the court was assisting them in things that were a challenge in their department.
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