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A former Home Affairs official has been sentenced to 10 years of direct imprisonment for corruption and contravening the Immigration Act.
The National Prosecuting Authority said 39-year-old Nhlanhla Mathebula, was jailed by the Nelspruit Commercial Crimes Court following his conviction on 12 counts of contravening the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.
He was stationed at Home Affairs in White River, Mpumalanga, at the time that he committed the offences.
National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson, Monica Nyuswa, said Mathebula would illegally process passport applications for illegal immigrants and replace the photos of South African citizens with those of foreign nationals.
She said the applications would usually be processed late at night and sometimes in the early hours of the morning for which Mathebula would be paid between R1000 and R5000 per application.
Nyuswa said he was arrested after one of his "clients" confused him with a Home Affairs colleague when trying to obtain a fake passport.
She said the court also ordered that the money he made from his illegal activities be recovered from his pension funds and transferred to the Criminal Assets Recovery Account.
