Fake marriages a growing concern for Home Affairs as R300 a month gets illegal immigrants SA wives. Picture: Pexels
For just R300 a month, and if you are connected to a woman named Priscilla, you can easily get a foreign national husband. A recent SABC report revealed that a woman identified as Rebone Shabir accused Priscilla of being involved in setting up Limpopo women with Pakistanis as husbands.
The SABC reported that several women from Limpopo also stepped forward following their expose of the pre-arranged marriages with spaza shop owners and other foreigners.
According to the media report, the 36-year-old Shabir indicated that she was approached by Priscilla with an offer to marry a male Pakistani shop owner in exchange for a monthly fee of R300, which would be paid until her death.
Shabir added that she and Priscilla subsequently travelled to the Johannesburg Home Affairs offices in the company of the shopkeeper and other foreign nationals.
“I agreed with them. We then went to Johannesburg where they promised me that they would provide me with R300, which they promptly paid when we returned. In the following month, they paid another R300.
“Subsequently, they disappeared, and since then, my ID book and my children’s birth certificates have gone missing. When I visited Home Affairs, they requested a marriage certificate, which I have no knowledge of,” she told the SABC.
It was further reported that, while Shabir received R600 over two months, another woman named Gloria Ratau allegedly pocketed R120 to become a Mrs Kazim.
Department of Home Affairs spokesperson Siyabulele Qoza indicated at the time that their records concerning the marriages of the two suggested a need for further investigation.
According to Independent Media, following this incident, Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi revealed that his department recorded more than 2 000 such cases every year.
Immigration and refugee lawyer Ashraf Essop said, “These marriages, often referred to as ‘paper marriages’, are common, usually for transactional purposes and the women can be paid as little as R300.”
Motsoaledi said: “Years ago I made a proposal that in any marriage there should be a record of the biometrics of the husband and the wife. That will have a direct curtailment of the fraud that is perpetrated.”
The minister indicated that the department had noted a growing number of arranged marriages between undocumented nationals and South African women for transactional purposes.
Foreign nationals and local women allegedly enter into these forms of unions as part of a business arrangement.
Last month, the minister also issued a stern warning to South Africans who “stupidly lend their IDs to be utilised in a fraudulent manner”.
Motsoaledi said: “All South African citizens are victims of this crime of greed. South Africans who stupidly lend their identities to be utilised in this manner end up suffering serious prejudice when trying to do transactions with other state institutions, banks and some industry associations.
“This is because the SA Social Security Agency, banks and the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority verify the identity of the people they transact with through the Home Affairs National Population Register.”
Saturday Star
siyabonga.sithole@inl.co.za
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