Hawks arrest senior home affairs official

The Hawks have arrested a 36-year-old suspect from the Nigel Home Affairs Department, for “allegedly masterminding fraudulent registration of births”.

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Pretoria – A senior Home Affairs administrative official has been arrested in Gauteng, the Directorate for Priority Crime investigation (Hawks) said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Anti-Corruption Unit arrested the 36-year-old suspect, who was working at the Nigel Home Affairs Department, for “allegedly masterminding fraudulent registration of births”.

Police spokesperson Major Robert Netshiunda said the Hawks received information about the alleged fraud and began investigations.

“Twelve fake birth registrations were found to have been done by the suspect and a further 388 fraudulent births were found to have been registered at the Department of Home Affairs in Alberton, allegedly by the same suspect,” he said.

“The suspect would go into the Home Affairs system, select a name of a South African woman, register a foreign child with the details of the local woman as the biological mother. The birth certificates would then be sold to foreign mothers so that their children could qualify for the social grant and other benefits enjoyed by South African children.”

Netshiunda said more arrests of officials and foreign mothers were expected.

The suspect is expected to appear in the Nigel Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday on charges of fraud and corruption.

African News Agency

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