The Department of Home Affairs (DHA) has ramped up a sustained cleanup of corrupt officials, resulting in the dismissal of seven employees so far in 2026 and at least four arrests, the minister told Parliament. Schreiber warned that the campaign is intensifying and that both officials and members of the public who pay for illicit services should expect to be held to account.
“Every crooked official and complicit member of the public must know that it is now only a matter of time until their turn arrives,” he said. “As our crackdown accelerates, the days of sleeping soundly are over for the corrupt. Sooner than you think.”
Recent operations have yielded a series of arrests. In May 2026 alone six suspects were detained in connection with Home Affairs-related corruption and fraud. One arrest involved a naturalised South African accused of falsely claiming paternity for five foreign children, which led to their registration on the National Population Register under a naturalised South African identity document. A separate operation at the White River branch led to the arrest of a senior immigration officer on allegations that he demanded payment before returning identity and travel documents to a Mozambican national.
In July 2026 a Border Management Authority official was arrested after an investigation by SAPS, the Ladybrand Detectives and the DHA’s Counter-Corruption unit. The official allegedly took R600 to unlawfully endorse a Lesotho national’s passport at the Maseru point of entry.
Schreiber told MPs that the department has referred 212 cases against Home Affairs employees to law enforcement for further investigation or prosecution since April 2023. He said the DHA has adopted a multi-disciplinary approach — including a strengthened Branch: Counter Corruption and Security Services — to tackle passport fraud and other offences.
That effort has produced convictions and dismissals. Investigations that started in 2023 led to the arrest of a passport fraud syndicate kingpin and 26 others. Over the last three financial years the DHA dismissed 114 officials: 43 in 2023/24, 49 in 2024/25 and 22 in 2025/26. Schreiber noted that eight officials have been convicted and handed a combined 97 years’ imprisonment, with individual sentences ranging from four to 18 years; in one case an official was ordered to repay bribes on top of a 10-year jail term.
He pointed to earlier convictions for selling birth certificates, issuing fraudulent death notices and attempting to bribe investigators — including a case where an official offered R10,000 to halt a probe and received three years’ direct imprisonment from the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court.
“We will not rest until we have rid Home Affairs of every single rotten apple through this combination of dismissals and criminal convictions,” Schreiber said.
The minister’s remarks underscore a clear message to South Africans tempted to shortcut official processes: using cash or contacts to obtain documents or services at Home Affairs now carries a much greater risk of detection, prosecution and severe punishment.