Question NW2696 to the Minister of Home Affairs
22 September 2022 - NW2696
Zungula, Mr V to ask the Minister of Home Affairs
(1)Noting that he has put together a team of advocates to probe citizenship certificates issued since 2004, and that there is a preliminary report on the matter, what total number of Home Affairs officials have been implicated in the report; (2) which areas are hotspots for the issuing of illegal citizenship certificates; (3) what measures are being put in place to proactively curb the criminal behaviour; (4) whether such citizenship statuses will be revoked; if not, what is the position in this regard; if so, (5) what mechanisms will be used to track all illegal recipients? NW2880E
Reply:
1. The report from the Ministerial Review Committee was received by the Department, which outlined areas for further investigation. The report’s main recommendation is that a Multi-Disciplinary Task Team be appointed to conduct an in-depth investigation into the identified areas. The appointment of the Multi-Disciplinary Task Team is at an advanced stage. The Task Team is to consist of experienced senior counsels, forensic investigators, Data analysts, and other related skills. This is because the team will do deep-dive investigations and may end up preparing dockets, develop plans to trace people, prepare documents for possible DCs, go to court to recover Government documents obtained fraudulently, and where appropriate trace people who need to be deported. This team will provide the details of the implicated officials after the in-depth investigation has been concluded.
2. The report from the Multi-Disciplinary Task Team will determine the hotspots which will be investigated.
3. Once the Multi-Disciplinary Task Team has completed their in-depth investigation, a report on what measures must be put in place to curb the criminal behaviour will be provided and then implemented.
(4)&(5) The report will inform the Department on the process to follow to revoke illegally obtained citizenship and the information needed to trace the illegal recipients.
END