The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, better known as the Hawks, have arrested another three officials from the Department of Home Affairs following an almost year-long investigation into corruption at South Africa’s Lebombo Border Post with Mozambique.
Although it’s not clear whether the Hawks’ investigation is concentrated on the Maputo Corridor crossing, Sunday’s arrest follows two initial arrests on Friday.
Then it was an immigration officer who executed an arrest on a police officer and a street hawker.
According to reliable information, the arrests are for border officials taking bribes to stamp the fraudulent accommodation and travel permits of illegal citizens from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Swaziland, and Malawi entering South Africa through Ressano Garcia.
It’s not clear what the general ‘fee’ is to circumvent immigration legislation.
Of interest is that Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi was visiting Lebombo at the time of the arrests.
The detained officials, all between the ages of 36 and 41, were on duty at the time.
Inside sources from the cross-border freight industry, who have complained about corruption at the border for years, all agreed that it seemed more than just a little coincidental that the arrests were carried out while Motsoaledi was present.
Minutes after the alleged corrupt officials were led away, the minister and his coterie of hangers-on posed for photographers from leading media houses.
