The increase of sham marriages as a vehicle for immigration fraud
The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) progress report exposed how foreign national used fraudulent marriages to secure permanent residency in South Africa.
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A SIU progress report presented to President Cyril Ramaphosa has shown how sham marriages are used as a vehicle for foreign nationals to secure permanent residency in South Africa.
The report highlights that fraudulent marriages and life partnerships are primary mechanisms for the immigration fraud, often involving foreign "pastors and prophets" who would enter on visitor visas before entering into unions to secure Permanent Residence Permits (PRPs).
Corrupt officials and religious leaders collaborated to facilitate "marriages of convenience" and fraudulent life partnerships.
The findings follow an interim report submitted in February, which detailed how South Africa’s immigration system had been sold to the highest bidder, with officials earning less than R25 000 per month allegedly receiving over R16.3 million in direct deposits.
The SIU described the immigration system as a "marketplace" where marriage certificates and residency permits were sold for fees ranging from R500 to R3 000.
The investigation uncovered that more than 630 000 foreign nationals may be living in South Africa illegally due to these schemes.
The investigation, conducted after receiving 2 557 study visa applications submitted by Nigerian foreign nationals to the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) between 2021 and 2023, exposed how a foreign national pastor entered South Africa using visitor’s visa in 2002, and subsequently entered into a life partnership agreement with a South African woman.
The investigation uncovered a sophisticated scheme where syndicates acquired the identity documents of South African women to marry them to undocumented foreign nationals without their knowledge or consent.
In one case, a woman was approached by a friend who asked if she was interested in making extra money, adding that a foreign national was offering her money in exchange for marriage.
"The two met the foreign national near the Chicken Licken outlet near Roodeport, where the foreign national took her identity document and entered the court. He requested her to sign documents that were unknown to her and gave her R400," read the report.
The SIU said the woman was provided with a notarial agreement dated December 9, 2003, during the interview, but she indicated she had no knowledge of the document.
Another foreign national applied for a PRP in 2004, eight days after marrying a South African man.
The application, according to SIU, was based on her marriage to him.
Her application for citizenship by neutralisation was approved in September 2010, followed by the citizen identity document.
During the 2024/25 spaza shop registration drive in South Africa, marriages between foreign nationals and South African citizens have come under intense scrutiny due to several regulatory and legal problems.
This was after some South Africans were found to be fronting for undocumented individuals.
In Soweto, tensions escalated when a man was caught attempting to register a shop for an undocumented migrant; community members reportedly tore up his ID in anger.
Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality confirmed that 338 out of 1 637 spaza shop applications submitted in the metro were identified as fraudulent.
Both the Presidency and DHA did not respond to queries at the time of publication.