MEC Sipho Hlomuka announced plans for an assessment of foreign national educators or officials within the KZN Education Department.
Image: KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education is embarking on an investigation into the employment status of foreign national educators or officials, following alarming findings from the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
The SIU’s damning report revealed that some foreign nationals in South Africa were fraudulently granted legal status, raising concerns about the integrity of documentation used by staff within the education sector.
KZN Education MEC Sipho Hlomuka said that they are analysing the SIU report, which found that some foreign nationals were fraudulently granted legal status in South Africa.
Hlomuka said the department is currently discussing whether this process affects it; specifically, the need to determine if any of their employees are involved.
He announced his intention to engage with senior management for a comprehensive assessment of all foreign nationals potentially employed within the department.
“So that we can investigate if those educators or any official within the department were employed correctly, and are here in the province correctly.”
He said they are doing it because a necessary step must be taken against individuals employed based on fraudulent legal documents, even if those documents were considered valid at the time of employment.
“We’ll then produce the report, and we’ll present it to the premier and relevant structures,” Hlomuka said.
“In case there are officials within the department coming from foreign nationals who are employed wrongly, those must be taken out, and we consider our South African unemployed educators, because we have several unemployed educators, as we are prioritising our South Africans in employment, except where there are no sufficient skills in those specific categories.”
On Monday, acting SIU head Leonard Lekgetho announced that South Africa’s immigration system has been treated as a marketplace, where permits and visas were sold to the highest bidder.
President Cyril Ramaphosa authorised the investigation through Proclamation 154 of 2024. The findings of this investigation were disclosed to the public during Monday’s media briefing, following the submission of an interim report to the president.
“Officials entrusted with safeguarding the integrity of the Department of Home Affairs instead turned their positions into profit-making schemes, while external actors, including Prophet Shepherd Bushiri, Kudakwashe Mpofu, and Nigerian rapper Prince Daniel Obioma (also known as 3GAR), exploited influence, fabricated documentation, and manipulated systemic weaknesses to secure fraudulent residence permits,” Lekgetho said.
In one case, Lekgetho said that a May 2024 SIU investigation, prompted by a whistle-blower, uncovered a major asylum fraud scheme. Foreign nationals allegedly collude with syndicates and corrupt Home Affairs officials to fraudulently obtain asylum seeker permits, which they then use to apply for permanent residency and citizenship.
Permits are issued without merit assessment, and applicants can remain in South Africa through lengthy appeals, even up to the Constitutional Court.
The SIU, with Hawks’ assistance and a Special Tribunal order, searched five Refugee Reception Offices, seizing and imaging 237 electronic items. Analysis revealed officials communicating with foreign nationals and accepting E-Wallet payments (R500–R3,000) for unlawfully issuing permits and visas.
Payments were also made through cash hidden in forms, non-RICA or fraudulently RICA-registered E-Wallet numbers, asylum seekers self-sending E-Wallet payments with OTPs (one-time passwords) to officials, and in-kind payments like covering rent. Officials used dummy phones to conceal these transactions.
thobeka.ngema@inl.co.za