Illegal stamping of passports ‘simply inexcusable’ - Motsoaledi
Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi says the illegal stamping of passports makes it more difficult for the country’s justice systems to prosecute foreign nationals.
Motsoaledi was reacting to the arrest of an immigration official and a police officer at OR Tambo International Airport on Wednesday.
They are due to appear in court in Kempton Park again on Monday.
“The act of stamping passports for departure and re-entry of people who remain in our country is extremely worrying,” Motsoaledi said.
“The owners of these passports can commit crimes in the country and claim that it could not have been them because ‘they were not in the country’ at the time of the commission of the crimes. They can use our departure and re-entry stamps on their passports to argue their cases in court. This is simply inexcusable. It makes foreign nationals with bad intensions believe that South Africa is up for the take.”
Motsoaledi said the immigration official had been in law enforcement’s sights for some time.
“On Wednesday evening, he was caught stamping nine passports of nationals from different countries as if those people had departed the country in February 2023 and returned on Wednesday”.
“Initial investigations have established that a runner brought the passports to the airport and handed them over to the policeman, who, using the fact that he was in uniform, went through security into the immigration area. He then linked up with the immigration official who proceeded to stamp the passports.”
It is believed that the immigration officer charged R2 000 for each passports he stamped.
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