MANZINI – As investigations into fraudulent activities at the Ministry of Home Affairs deepen, it has been uncovered that most government services were offered in the backyard of some civil servants’ places of abode.

The police, in their investigations, followed tips on allegations that there was a ‘syndicate’ milking the State of thousands of Emalangeni, as they rendered services of the ministry from their backyards. The investigators reportedly found that some civil servants were selling government documents, such as birth certificates, national identity (IDs) documents, marriage certificates, travel documents, international passports, visas and work permits.  The sources said these documents were found last week at the residences of some civil servants. Along with the documents, it was said the police also found government stamps, which were used in ‘authenticating’ the fraudulent paperwork.

Deployed

The sources supposed that some of the civil servants deployed to the Ministry of Home Affairs had a big clientele among people of Asian origin and from some north-eastern African countries. According to the sources, the modus operandi of the decadent civil servants was that they dealt with agents who informed them of people in need of these documents.
Thereon, it was said the civil servants would in turn bring the documents to their residences, where they were picked up by the ‘clients’. It was said some of the civil servants were also found with blank documents, which were said be filled per ‘order’. The clients were said to have been paying the civil servants in cash, as this was discovered during a raid of residences of some of the civil servants fingered in the fraudulent act of releasing government documents in the black market.

It was gathered that some of the civil servants were found with hard cash in their houses, while others hid it in their vehicles. The sources claimed that the breakthrough in uncovering the corruption at the Ministry of Home Affairs came after the arrest of a Zimbabwe national. Delight Moyo, who is suspected to have been a middleman between some of the immigration officers and ‘customers’ who needed passports, was arrested by the police under the Serious Crimes Unit. Moyo was suspected to have been part of a syndicate dealing in the sale of refugee status and passports to foreign nationals. When Moyo was arrested, it was alleged that he was found in possession of five Eswatini passports, suspected to have been stolen from the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Further investigations uncovered that Moyo had been producing a fraudulent passport to immigration officers in order to enter and exit Eswatini, through Ngwenya Border Gate, since last year. The investigations also uncovered that Moyo allegedly stole Eswatini Government passport book No: 0071943, which is valued at E300. It has been alleged that Moyo acted jointly with other people in the commission of the offence.  He was also charged with theft, as it was alleged that he had received stolen Eswatini Government passport books No: 0072999, 0073327, 0071982, and 077733 valued at E1 200.  The passport books are the property of the Ministry of Home Affairs. It was also alleged that Moyo offered a public officer an amount of E2 100 as an inducement to or a reward for stamping and not reporting fraudulent passports No: 10337826, 10034578, 10440656, 10034326 and 10045233.

Bribe

The money, which is alleged to have been paid as a bribe to the public officer, was handed over to the police. His arrest has since been followed by that of Assistant Immigration Officer, Mboneni Nkosinathi Zwane, who has been charged with 26 counts of fraud, theft and money laundering. Among the charges faced by Zwane, is that of fraud, in that he produced a travel document and presented it as authentic for his co-accused (Moyo). According to sources, more arrests are expected to be effected as police intensify investigations into the alleged fraudulent activities in the Ministry of Home Affairs. The police made the breakthrough after an internal investigation into the issuance of e-visa to foreigners. In 2022, it was reported that the Ministry of Home Affairs had instituted an internal probe into the sale of refugee status and passports to foreign nationals.

Police investigations reportedly found that there was a syndicate dealing in documentation status and refugee passports. It was revealed that the syndicate charged between E30 000 and E50 000 for fresh and legal documents for any undocumented citizen, who wanted to be treated as an official refugee in the Kingdom of Eswatini. The internal investigations saw over 100 immigration officers transferred last year. Also, the theft of security documents such as passports and travel documents, as revealed in the Ministry of Economic Planning and Development 2023/2024 annual performance report, was so rife that government intended to install a E3.99 million security surveillance systems in the Immigration Office at the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Challenge

At the time, the Immigration Office was faced with the challenge of the disappearance and theft of security documents, such as passports and travel documents. The report depicted that government would spend at least E3.99 million and the support went towards the procurement and installation of a security surveillance system (digital surveillance cameras, control equipment and other accessories) in selected Immigration Offices at the ministry, which stored security documents.