The Department of Home Affairs has raised concerns over the number of fraudulent marriages they have come across from the start of April 2018 to date.
Home Affairs Minister, Aaron Motsoaledi, delivered his budget speech in Parliament on Wednesday, 10 July, and said they deal with an average of 2 000 fraudulent marriages every year.
“From 1st April 2018 to date, the Department has come across 2 132 fraudulent marriages. Out of these, 1 160 were found to be fake and were annulled by the Department. But 646 were found to be legitimate and the Department refused to expunge such marriages from the register. These are called marriages of convenience, ” said Motsoaledi.
He explained that convenience marriages happen between a South African and a non-South African. The South African is rewarded with huge sums of money and the non-South African gains easy access to citizenship through the marriage.
Motsoeladi added that there are three ways truly fraudulent marriages can occur, and asked that people be aware of them.
They are the result of:
– Fraud syndicates consisting of Home Affairs officials and other marriage officers outside Home Affairs.
– Employment agencies who ask you to hand over all your documentation with a promise of securing a job for you.
– Duplicated identities, i.e. where somebody is impersonating you.
The Minister also invited a woman who was a victim of duplicated identity to share her story and apologised to her. He said Thami Swartbooi’s identity was stolen by another woman who’d acquired her ID number.
