FOR JUST R300 a month, and if you are connected to a woman by the name of Priscilla, you can easily get yourself a foreign national husband. A recent SABC report revealed that a woman identified as Rebone Shabir accused Priscilla of being involved in setting up Limpopo women with Pakistanis as husbands.
The SABC reported that several women from Limpopo also stepped forward following their expose of the pre-arranged marriages with spaza shop owners and other foreigners.
According to the media report, the 36-year-old Shabir indicated that she was approached by Priscilla with an offer to marry a male Pakistani shop owner in exchange for a monthly fee of R300, which would be paid until her death.
Shabir added that she and Priscilla subsequently travelled to the Johannesburg Home Affairs offices in the company of the shopkeeper and other foreign nationals.
“I agreed with them. We then went to Johannesburg where they promised me that they would provide me with R300, which they promptly paid when we returned. In the following month, they paid another R300.
“Subsequently, they disappeared, and since then, my ID book and my children’s birth certificates have gone missing. When I visited Home Affairs, they requested a marriage certificate, which I have no knowledge of,” she told the SABC.
It was further reported that, while Shabir received R600 over two months, another woman named Gloria Ratau allegedly pocketed R120 to become a Mrs Kazim.
Department of Home Affairs spokesperson Siyabulele Qoza indicated at the time that their records concerning the marriages of the two suggested a need for further investigation.
According to Independent Media,

following this incident, Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi revealed that his department recorded more than 2 000 such cases every year.
Immigration and refugee lawyer Ashraf Essop said, “These marriages, often referred to as ‘paper marriages’, are common, usually for transactional purposes and the women can be paid as little as R300.”
Motsoaledi said: “Years ago I made a proposal that in any marriage there should be a record of the biometrics of the husband and the wife. That will have a direct curtailment of the fraud that is perpetrated.”
The minister indicated that the department had noted a growing number of arranged marriages between undocumented nationals and South African women for transactional purposes.
Foreign nationals and the local women allegedly enter into these forms of unions as part of a business arrangement.
Last month, the minister also issued a stern warning to South Africans who “stupidly lend their IDs to be utilised in a fraudulent manner”.
Motsoaledi said: “All South African citizens are victims of this crime of greed. South Africans who stupidly lend their identities to be utilised in this manner end up suffering serious prejudice when trying to do transactions with other state institutions, banks and some industry associations.
“This is because the SA Social Security Agency, banks and the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority verify the identity of the people they transact with through the Home Affairs National Population Register.” V.5069

Australia’s plan to cap the number of new international students to 270,000 starting in 2025 has sparked widespread concern within the education sector. However, the proposal, which still needs parliamentary approval, is unlikely to have a significant impact on students from African countries planning to study in Australia. The National Planning Level (NPL) for 2025, which includes the limit on the number of international student enrolments, aims to reduce overall migration to pre-pandemic levels. V.5595
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Bethuel Ngobeni, Dumisa Moyo, Nhlanhla Magwaca, Moseki Sechele, Thabo Sechele and Khudzai Mashaya appear in court to face illicit gold mining charges. Image: Thapelo Morebudi An investigation into illicit gold mining has uncovered how one of the accused obtained a fraudulent identity document, 12 years after arriving in SA. V.5594
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• Lesotho has rekindled moves to implement localisation rules for certain types of businesses dominated by foreigners. • Indians, Chinese and South Africans dominate the 47 reserved businesses. • SA firms will be under pressure to use local distributors, and not contract Basotho labour via SA-based agents. V.5587
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Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said that plans were underway for the Department of Home Affairs to switch from working manually to digitally. CAPE TOWN - Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said that long queues, off-line systems, and paper-based applications at department offices would soon be a thing of the past. Schreiber said that plans were underway for the Department of Home Affairs to switch from working manually to digitally. V.5588
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‘There are various pathways and provisions in the law that recognise that people should not be stateless, and we are failing to ensure that these people have papers,’ says Global Movement Against Statelessness’ Christy Chitengu. Christy Chitengu was born in South Africa and regards herself as a South African, despite her parents being Zimbabwean. V.5589
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Inspection at workplaces set to increase Newly appointed home affairs minister Leon Schreiber will increase inspections at restaurants, spaza shops, farms and mines to heighten the crackdown on undocumented workers in these industries. Schreiber said while SA welcomes those who contribute to the country legally through skills, investments and as tourists, it needed to do more to combat illegal immigration. V.5592
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CAPE TOWN - Minister of Home Affairs Leon Schreiber says since March, his department already reported 109 cases of document fraud to its counter corruption unit. Three officials have been convicted and sentenced during this same period. V.5593
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Key Takeaways • As of August 28, Canada has banned temporary residents on visitor visas from applying for work permits within the country. • The policy`s early termination is part of IRCC`s efforts to manage the influx of temporary residents and combat immigration fraud. • Starting September 26, 2024, Canada will cut the number of temporary foreign workers by about 65,000. Canada has recently launched a new policy that prohibits temporary residents on visitor visas from applying for work permits within the country, a decision that significantly impacts their ability to work and stay in Canada. V.5583
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The United Kingdom has long been a favoured destination for South Africans seeking work or residency, thanks to shared language, time zones, and historical ties. However, according to JP Breytenbach from Breytenbachs Immigration Consultants, the profile of South African migrants is changing. “There is a significant increase in business migration, with companies aiming to expand into the UK as a gateway to Europe or the US,” he shared in an interview with Biznews. Many of these South Africans businesses feel they have reached a ceiling in their local markets or are tech entrepreneurs who believe their products are not yet viable in South Africa. This year, new UK immigration rules are set to take effect as the country seeks to limit net migration. V.5584
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Applicants who prefer hard copies of ZEP waiver letters will still be able to collect them at branches. Leon Schreiber, Minister of Home Affairs, during the swearing-in ceremony of the new national executive members at Cape Town International Convention Centre on 3 July, 2024 in Cape Town. Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber has announced that the first batch of Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP) waiver applications has been processed. ZEP holders will no longer need to go to Home Affairs branches to find out the outcome of their applications. The department will be sending them out digitally. V.5585
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