The Citizen reports that Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has welcomed the 15-year direct imprisonment sentence handed down to a corrupt immigration practitioner who was behind a fraudulent South African permit scam.

The Pretoria Magistrate’s Court sentenced Nasi Seqola, an immigration practitioner, and her accomplice, Ethiopian national Biru Yosef Alem who holds a permanent residence permit, to 15 years behind bars without an option of a fine. Seqola and Alem were convicted in October 2021 and were sentenced this week. Seqola had tried to recruit an official from the Government Printing Works (GPW) to print 5,000 blank permits. In return, the official was promised R150,000. But the official reported Seqola’s plans to the Counter Corruption Branch, which worked with other law enforcement officials to set up a sting. In the scheme, Alem would have recruited foreign nationals who did not qualify for South African permits, and for a fee, bring them to Seqola, who would have completed a fraudulent permit and then used her corrupt contacts at Home Affairs to insert such a permit in the database. Motsoaledi emphasised that immigration practitioners were not Home Affairs employees. “They must not be confused with immigration officers who are uniformed Department of Home Affairs officials,” he pointed out, adding that some immigration practitioners have had a corrosive effect on Home Affairs service delivery.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard at The Citizen

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