According to Minister of Home Affairs, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, an official based at South Africa’s mission in Windhoek, Namibia has been fired for selling more than 100 visas to non-qualifying people.
The Minister said that the secretary of civics and immigration services sold the visas to non-qualifying citizens from Pakistan and Bangladesh. He further added that the process was so easy in that people would not need to travel to Namibia to access them; instead, they were simply couriered, delivered as the Minister put it, “on a silver platter”.
It is reported that about 100 visas were revoked. Dr Motsoaledi said that he cannot confirm that all of them were fraudulent and that each visa issued by the official since October 2018, when they started at the mission, will be audited.
Motsoaledi raised concerns about the way labour unions were handling the case, saying that while the unions have a duty to support their members, the union representing the fired official should not stifle the department’s disciplinary processes in the way that they have tried to in this case.
“I don’t believe that union membership is bigger than patriotism. What this lady was doing is tantamount to high treason, selling the sovereignty of the country to the highest bidder,” the Minister said.
In addition to the dismissal, a case of fraud and corruption has been taken to the Hawks for further investigation.
