Durban home affairs employee and foreigners convicted for passport fraud scam

Members of a syndicate of foreigners, a South African and a home affairs department employee have been convicted on numerous fraud and corruption charges related to running a passport scam.

Congolese nationals Tausi Majani Kahwere, 25, and John Majani Kahwere, 44, Morshed Alam, 25, and Saiful Islam Sujon, 43, from Bangladesh and South African Olivier Whendle Harriparsad, 42, were found guilty on Tuesday.

The foreigners were arrested between 2021 and 2023 as they were boarding flights to different destinations and had already passed through the check-in process.

They were found guilty of fraud, corruption and contravening the identification and immigration acts.

Home affairs official Judy Zuma was found to have colluded with the syndicate to assist foreigners from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Democratic Republic of Congo obtain South African passports.

They replaced the owners' photos with theirs and assumed the names of South African citizens.

Zuma pleaded guilty and was convicted of 1,159 counts of fraud, corruption and contravention of the Immigration Act and Identification Act and will be sentenced in April.

The Congolese pair will be sentenced in the Durban magistrate's court on Friday while the others will be sentenced on May 21.

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