Twenty years ago, *Fungai Nyirenda (53) from Murehwa District in Zimbabwe, illegally crossed into South Africa looking for a job.
Without a residence permit, Nyirenda had to quickly legalise her status to land a job. She bought one.
“There was no way I could claim to be a local. I needed a document,” said Fungai explaining how she met a man outside the South African Home Affairs offices in Marabastad who said he could organise an asylum document for her. A deal was done. She paid the man R1 000 and within a day she had a ‘document’ and was good to go job hunting as an asylum seeker.
Months later, Fungai produced her document after police confronted her. She was told her document was a fake. She continues to use that fake document today and has got a job as a maid.
“I realised what had happened. It was after that experience when I was told by others that without entering the Home Affairs office there is no way of getting a legitimate document,”Fungai said.
“That I don’t have legitimate papers is a big challenge. I have stayed in this job using the fake asylum document. I can’t move to any other job.”
The desire to be a legal resident in South Africa is a booming black-market business. African nationals are paying up to R45 000 (USD2 600) a pop to obtain fake residence permits. As a result, desperate immigrants, especially Zimbabweans, are exploited.
Most people who have fallen victim to the fake documents trade said their desire was to live in peace without fear of the police and to be able to get a proper, well-paying job.
*Elias Dube, (41) from Plumtree, said he has fallen victim. He paid for a fake permit he used for two years without travelling outside South Africa.
“This time when I travelled to Zimbabwe, border officials told me my permit was fake and threatened to destroy my passport. While I got my passport back I was banned from entering South Africa for some time.”
During that time, Elias travelled and lived as an illegal immigrant in South Africa.
“I managed my way around but I lost out on the chance to apply for the Zimbabwe special dispensation permits because I did not have a passport,” he said.
Elias, works as an electrician in a company owned by Zimbabweans and paid almost R5 000 for the fake permit.
“It was a work permit,” he said.“I don’t have proper papers but have worked here for a long time now and I am one of the most experienced electricians.”
*Sipho Nyathi’s passport was endorsed two years back and life has been difficult as an illegal resident in South Africa.
“When there’s a death in the family and I have to travel to Zimbabwe, I know I somehow have to use the bush or cross the Limpopo River to Zimbabwe or come back to South Africa,” she said.
Sipho bought a fake permit for R5 000 from a ‘connection’ at the Home Affairs Department.
“It was at the border that I was told it was fake and it was banned,” she said.
Legality does not come cheap
A report by a university research centre and a human rights non-governmental organisation indicates that 30 percent of migrants experienced corruption in the process of legalising their stay in Africa’s biggest economy.
Having a legal status in South Africa is so priced that many immigrants sacrifice everything for it.
“In South Africa, it’s important that a person is legal, with their papers, because firstly when you’re going in the streets you’re not scared and you can even get hired lawfully,” said *Khethiwe Tshuma, a Zimbabwean working illegally in South Africa.
“As well as going to the hospital, you can get assistance but now even if you have papers they make you pay again. We don’t know why they are doing that.”
Khethiwe said the solution is for the South African government to give legal papers to as many migrants as possible and to regularise the status of Zimbabweans with the ZEP permits.
Spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs and Deputy Director-General:Operations (South Africa), Thulani Mavuso, acknowledged that there are frequent reports of people who were duped into paying for fake documents,
“Frequent reports are received, although some do not have merit,” he said responding to questions from CITE.
“Any individual who wants to visit South Africa should approach the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) or appointed service providers for assistance. Anyone who alleges to be duped for not following the law, will be liable according to the law and deported back to the country of origin.”
Last month, a Zimbabwean man, Kudakwashe Mpofu, was convicted in South Africa after it emerged he used a fake permanent residence permit, bought for R3 000, to secure high-level jobs and benefits. Mpofu fraudulently rose to become Chief Financial Officer of the North West Development Corporation (NWDC), earning over R1.6 million a year.
The SIU found he also possessed several other forged documents, including a skills visa, work permit and an exemption certificate dated 1996, when he was just five years old. Using these papers, he stayed in South Africa after his student visa expired, obtained a driver’s licence, and financed multiple vehicles, including a Land Rover Sport and BMW 3 Series.
The Mmabatho Regional Court sentenced Mpofu on November 12, 2025 to three years in prison on one count, convertible to correctional supervision and an additional three-year suspended sentence conditional on avoiding further fraud or corruption.
Corrupt officials
Concurring that many people have been scammed in seeking asylum documents and residence permits, Ngqabutho Mabhena, Secretary of the African Diaspora Forum and Chairman of the Zimbabwe Community in South Africa, highlighted that most of the people who are scammed do not qualify for general work visas or any other visa.
“Most of the permits people would possibly qualify for are listed under critical skills. The majority of the people that come to South Africa do not meet requirements, as a result they fall into the hands of conmen who connive with some officials either at the VFS centre or at the Department of Home Affairs,” he said. “Some of these officials make them pay between R15 000 and R45 000 for permits, in most cases these would be fake permits.”
Mabhena said while fake permits enabled holders to open a bank account and to travel across the borders of South Africa, they were not captured in the immigration system.
“The affected person will be banned from South Africa or possibly prosecuted,” he said, explaining that his Forum receives about 15 reports every month of people scammed into fake permits.
“Usually people realise that their permits are fake after some time,” he said. “By the time they come to us it would be late for us to help.”
An official from the DHA said, on a daily basis, immigration officials monitor, arrest and process illegal immigrants for deportation in line with court orders.
“DHA-led operations with other law enforcement agencies investigate, arrest and deport all perpetrators.For example, the Department led a successful operation with other law enforcement agencies in Krugersdorp, to investigate and arrest the syndicate which operated from Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces,” Mavuso noted..
“The operation resulted in the arrest of a kingpin, who is currently serving a term of 18 years imprisonment, Home Affairs officials, runners, illegal foreigners and South African citizens, for issuing fraudulent passports through passport photo swap.”
On 14 June this year, South African police reported that the Serious Corruption Investigation part of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, based in Pretoria, secured a number of warrants of arrest which are currently being executed in various parts of KwaZulu-Natal.
The police say the execution operation followed a complaint from the DHA on issuance of fraudulent passports to undocumented foreign nationals between February 2020 and July 2023 at the DHA offices in Durban.
While it is difficult to access collated figures on people arrested for illegal activities around permits and passports, there have been several reports of people – both citizens and foreigners have been nabbed for the crime.
On 20 August 2025, a 47-year-old Malawian man was arrested for fraud and being an illegal immigrant. He was allegedly involved in producing and selling fraudulent documents at an internet café in Eden Park, according to a report by the Ekurhuleni Municipality Police Department and Eden Park South African Police Services.
In May this year, the South African Police Service (SAPS)’s Office of the Provincial Commissioner in Limpopo arrested three suspects aged between 37 and 57 in connection with fraud charges relating to irregular issuing of identity documents to unqualified illegal immigrants.
“The arrests stem from complaints received on 26 June 2024 and 23 August 2024 by an investigator at the Department of Home Affairs,” said Brigadier Hlulani Mashaba, Limpopo police spokesperson.
The police have denied extorting bribes from illegal immigrants during raids. However, migrants insist corruption has been going on since 2022.
Gauteng SAPS Provincial Spokesperson, Captain Mavela Masondo, said police were conducting crime sweeps across Gauteng Province and were not allowed to process illegal immigrants.
“If they bring documents, only immigration can verify them. If there are allegations of police asking for money they must come forward and open cases against police officers because that is totally against the law, “ said Captain Masondo.
Khethiwe Tshuma said people without documents were constantly harassed by police who stopped them at random roadblocks or waited for them at places of work.
“Sometimes police even wait outside the restaurants. They will get into their pool cars and tail the cars that bring them, then they get to hidden areas and stop the car. Afterwards they ask for money which can amount to R1 500.
“If you don’t have R1 500, you’re forced to call relatives or friends to pay. Otherwise, once they take you to jail, you can spend two or three months inside before being deported. Police do this every day, you can’t pay R1 500 on Monday and then again on Tuesday. What money would you even be working for? That’s our biggest problem.”
Ghanaian *Abed Kumasi, he has been making fake papers for five years now and charges R1 000 for the asylum documents .
“I always advise my clients that these papers are for looking for work in restaurants and other places where there is no way of checking their validity,” says Abed who warns clients to never present the documents when confronted by police:
“They should just say they don’t have papers and negotiate to pay a bribe, that’s all.”
Department of Home Affairs failure
According to a 2017 report by Lawyers for Human Rights and the African Centre for Migration and Society, corruption around the country’s refugee system has been fuelled by high demand for asylum papers that stretches the DHA’s capacity to process them.
“Refugee reception offices are consequently characterised by unwieldy queue management, poor quality status determination procedures, and arbitrary discretion in issuing documents and renewals,” the report said.
“These conditions create multiple opportunities for corruption. Additional factors provide further incentives: individuals must generally make multiple visits to a refugee reception office to address a single issue; they remain in the system for several years, necessitating even more visits; and they receive legally problematic status determination decisions that require appeals.”
The report said 13 percent of asylum seekers surveyed reported being asked for money by a border official. Many reported paying an extra amount to the driver transporting them across the border for the purposes of paying off border officials.
The report surveyed 928 asylum seekers and refugees while they were exiting or waiting to enter one of the country’s five refugee offices.
*Nomore Njovu, a middle-aged man from Matabeleland North, left Zimbabwe in 2008 to look for a job.
Nomore went to the Marabastad Refugee Centre, where he was processed and received asylum in 2009. In 2017, he was given Africa. He signed papers admitting he will leave South Africa but stayed. To regularise his stay, Nomore stamps days in his passport.
“I really want to formalise my status because I have been here for too long,” Nomore says. “I am self-employed, doing business that serves Zimbabweans based in South Africa. It’s very important to be documented and accounted for in South Africa,”.
Lived experiences
*Definite Ncube (40) from Bulawayo in Zimbabwe, had a work permit when she came to South Africa in 2008 but the permit expired and returned it to have her passport back. She has been working in the country illegally since.
“l cross into neighbouring countries, get my passport stamped and from there l am given an extra month in South Africa. After two months, I go back to Zimbabwe, stay a week and then return,” Definite says. “At the border, South African immigration officials actually sell us days – R200 for two months, R300 for three months. Your passport is stamped, but when you exit again, you must pay another official to re-enter because you would already have been given 90 days. That’s the only way we survive, just to keep working for our children back home.”
Immigration officers in South Africa work in collusion with bus company agents, stamping passports to grant extra days in South Africa in exchange for cash payments.
Bus agents, who operate on the Zimbabwe to South Africa route, compile lists of passengers seeking longer stays and the amounts each has paid. The lists are handed directly to Home Affairs officials at the border, who make sure the corresponding passport stamps reflect the purchased duration.This arrangement bypasses legal entry requirements and allows individuals without permits to remain in South Africa far longer than the law permits.
This December, a 43-year-old Zimbabwean man was arrested in Mpumalanga after South African police discovered 582 passports and more than R147,000 in cash hidden in a bakkie he was driving.
The arrest adds on to the growing concerns over corrupt Home Affairs and border-control officials accused of selling illegal passport stamps to foreign nationals.
South African police intercepted the vehicle after a tip-off and found the passports, some stuffed with cash, in a concealed compartment, along with R20 000 wrapped in plastic. Investigators believe the driver planned to meet someone the next day to have the passports illegally stamped, with the cash intended as payment.
The Zimbabwean faces charges of immigration violations, fraud and money laundering while his vehicle was seized for further investigation.
Nevertheless, even having bought the extra days stamped on their passports, illegal immigrants are still a target for unscrupulous police officers.
“There’s no way you can be working illegally and have no money, that’s exactly who the police target,” says Definite.
“Sometimes they (police) stop a taxi with 15 passengers, maybe only five will have documents, the rest won’t. That’s R1 000 per head. Imagine a police officer collecting R1 000 from 10 people. Sometimes they demand the money right there on the roadside, but if you don’t have it, they say, ‘let’s go and take it.’”
What should be done?
Mabhena, the Secretary of the African Diaspora Forum and Chairman of the Zimbabwe Community in South Africa, said the South African government needs to review its permit system to accommodate foreign nationals.
“While we understand South Africa has to protect jobs for local South Africans, the reality is you have people from neighbouring countries that come and work in South Africa,” he said, noting that South Africa gave an amnesty to Zimbabweans in 2010 and to BaSotho in 2014, paving a way for the employment of domestic workers from these countries who he feels must be documented and granted special permits.
While a crackdown on undocumented immigrants might be a solution, it does not tackle the endemic corruption around the issuance of fake documents that keeps illegals in South Africa. It may be time for South Africa to implement the SADC SADC Protocol on the Facilitation of Movement of Persons which it has signed and ratified.
*Not their real names
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