SOWETAN SAYS | Department must clean its house

Today we tell a story of Bethuel Ngobeni, a 39-year-old Mpumalanga man whose identity was stolen by an alleged illegal mining kingpin, currently on trial in the Pretoria high court. 

Until police knocked on the door of his modest home in Bushbucksridge in 2021, just days after he buried his father, Ngobeni had no idea that a series of crimes involving illicit gold trading and money laundering were committed in Gauteng by a man using his name. 

The man believed to be Mozambican-born Zingai Dhliwayo, is on trial, together with several other accused whom police believe were part of a lucrative enterprise that ran in the Carltonville area. 

Their case highlights, yet again, what has become a quintessential SA problem – identity theft. 

It is a problem that spans the pre-democratic era but has seemingly taken root in recent years in SA. 

Its implications for the nation on a broader scale are far-reaching. 

It is arguably one of the most prevalent features of inter-continental financial crimes and is as enabling as it is hard to trace. 

Its implications on victims as individuals are devastating. 

Too many South Africans have been rendered stateless, at times for years, because their identities have been stolen, making them unable to exercise their most basic rights. 

Thrusting the matter into the public eye recently was the announcement by home affairs that it had prima facie evidence that former Miss SA finalist, Chidimma Adetshina's mother may have committed fraud and stolen an SA woman’s identity when her daughter was born. 

This means for 23 years, an SA woman and her child’s identity have been compromised, potentially rendering them stateless in their home country. 

This phenomenon is one of the most pressing challenges facing the home affairs department and by extension, our domestic security. 

It happens because some officials who are entrusted with our information are deeply corrupt, choosing to make a quick buck, at the expense of individual strife and national risk. 

The department must up the ante to confront this criminality in its ranks.  

While we have witnessed several incidents where corrupt officials are rightly prosecuted, it is evident that this is a crime of scale. 

A much more coordinated and well-resourced plan is needed to break the back of home affairs syndicates involved in this crime. 

SowetanLIVE