By Charmaine Ndlela
Leon Schreiber has issued a stern warning to corrupt officials within the Department of Home Affairs, saying government is intensifying its crackdown on corruption, immigration fraud and misconduct.
Delivering his 2026 Budget Vote speech in the National Assembly on Friday, Schreiber said corrupt officials were now being arrested, dismissed and prosecuted on an almost weekly basis.
“Since the start of this administration, the Department of Home Affairs has secured 10 criminal convictions, 14 arrests and 65 dismissals linked to corruption and misconduct. The Border Management Authority has secured a further 26 arrests and 34 dismissals,” he said.
“We will not rest until every single corrupt official is swept away by the tide of accountability washing over Home Affairs.”
Schreiber warned officials involved in corruption that it was no longer a matter of if they would be caught, but when.
“They are spending all their time wondering when it will be their turn. My answer to them is simple: sooner than you think,” he said.
The minister said government was also ramping up immigration enforcement and deportations as part of efforts to restore the rule of law.
According to Schreiber, Home Affairs carried out nearly 110,000 deportations over the past two financial years — a 46% increase compared to previous years.
He added that the Border Management Authority had prevented more than 945,000 people from entering South Africa illegally or without the required documentation since its establishment.
Schreiber said Operation New Broom, launched last year, resulted in more than 10,700 immigration enforcement inspections during the past financial year, exceeding the department’s annual target of 4,000 inspections.
“In the last year alone, Home Affairs has done more immigration enforcement operations than during the entire five-year term of the previous administration,” he said.
The minister also highlighted major reforms aimed at modernising Home Affairs services through digital transformation and biometric technology.
He said the department’s new digital partnership with banks had already expanded access to Smart ID replacement services by 47% within two months of launch.
A total of 167 bank branches across the country now offer Smart ID replacement services, compared to 30 branches under the previous manual system over a decade.
“Just eight weeks after the project went live, more than 127,000 South Africans had already used the new system,” Schreiber said.
He added that the department plans to expand Smart ID and related services to 750 bank branches by the end of 2026, with a particular focus on rural and underserved communities.
The minister said the digitised system had reduced application processing times to as little as five minutes through biometric verification technology.
“No queues. No prior bookings. No paperwork,” he said.
Schreiber also confirmed that Home Affairs plans to introduce first-time ID applications, passport applications and doorstep delivery services through the new system in the coming months.
He said the reforms would help phase out the Green ID book, which he described as one of the most defrauded documents on the African continent.
On immigration policy, Schreiber said Cabinet had approved the Revised White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection, which proposes stricter asylum processes.
The reforms include introducing a “first safe country” principle aimed at preventing asylum seekers from bypassing other safe countries to settle in South Africa.
He also welcomed a recent ruling by the Constitutional Court of South Africa confirming that rejected asylum seekers cannot repeatedly submit new applications to remain in the country indefinitely.
Schreiber revealed plans to expand the electronic travel authorisation system to more countries as part of efforts to curb illegal immigration and root out corruption within the department.
He added that the system had already denied visas to more than 4,500 applicants through document verification and facial recognition technology.
Schreiber said the ruling, together with the proposed legislative reforms, would strengthen government’s ability to increase lawful deportations and tighten immigration enforcement.
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