Krugersdorp passports syndicate kingpin sentenced to 8 years in prison

Lerato Mbhiza

A Pakistani national – Arfan Ahmed – arrested in a sting operation that included the Counter Corruption Branch of Home Affairs, the Hawks and the Police Crime Intelligence on 24 March 2022 at the Home Affairs office in Krugersdorp, was sentenced to eight years imprisonment by the Brixton Magistrate Court on Monday .

Ahmed was identified as the kingpin of a passport syndicate that sought to undermine the country’s laws by fraudulently procuring South African passports for Pakistani nationals who did not have a legal right to possess South African passports.

Home Affairs Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has welcomed sentences recently meted out to two South Africans and a Pakistani national in two different cases in Durban and Johannesburg, for passport-related crimes.

Ahmed was working with some corrupt officials of Home Affairs in a network that spanned Gauteng, Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Western Cape and Mpumalanga.

While the