Network hijacks SA's visa system

ILLEGAL GAINS: R181M TO FOREIGNERS, R16M TO OFFICIALS

- Jarryd Westerdale

EMBEDED. Minister of Home Affairs Leon Schreiber says the dire state of the department was inherited by the seventh administration. Picture: Gallo Images

(Gallo Images)

Self-proclaimed prophet Shepherd Bushiri and a former provincial government chief financial officer (CFO) are among notable names in a Special Investigations Unit (SIU) investigation into the department of home affairs.

Acting head Leonard Lekgetho led a SIU briefing yesterday detailing the findings in an interim report on the probe.

The SIU has been scrutinising visa, asylum seeker and residence permit irregularities spanning a 20-year period from October 2004, to February 2024.

Other notable figures featured in the report include pastor Timothy Omotoso and the man who crashed a supercar in Cape Town in March last year, the Nigerian rapper known as 3GAR, whose real name is Prince Daniel Obioma.

Lekgetho said the investigation was prompted by whistle-blower information alleging that foreign nationals were colluding with department officials to obtain visas and permits.