Security scare at Home Affairs in PMB

THE Department of Home Affairs in KwaZulu-Natal is facing yet another security scare after a firearm, live ammunition, bullets and magazines were found at its Pietermaritzburg office.

Sources told the Independent on Saturday that staff were shaken by the discovery last Thursday, but were instructed to carry on with their duties.

The department confirmed the incident yesterday. “The firearm belongs to the department and had been previously reported as stolen,” said Thulani Mavuso, spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs and Deputy Director-General: Operations. “The police will process it and determine whether it was used in any manner.”

This latest incident adds to a string of security lapses in the province. In May last year, more than 200 identity documents vanished while in transit between Pretoria and Pietermaritzburg. A month earlier, passports — primarily of Indian men — were reported stolen from two Home Affairs offices in Durban. At the time, whistleblowers alleged that senior officials were under investigation for allegedly participating in a syndicate that sold legal passports to foreigners.

Late last year, a senior Home Affairs official previously implicated in the passport fraud was also under investigation in connection with the manufacture and sale of birth certificates, which allegedly generated R2.9 million in illicit profits. At the time Mavuso said the department was investigating the official for registering births without following proper procedures. Last year the Department of Home Affairs confirmed that several investigations relating to KZN were underway.

However, the challenges faced are nationwide. Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber previously said that they were finally making progress in the battle against fraud and corruption. “Through holding accountable people involved in corruption both inside and outside the Department, we are dismantling the syndicates that took hold over many years,” he previously said.