The working team informed Parliament on Tuesday of the Lubisi report on corruption within the Ministry of the Interior.

The team’s investigative director, Rose Bishop, highlighted the importance of cooperation between Home Affairs and social services to prevent fraudulent claims for social grants from non-citizens.

“A number of candidates are applying for permanent residence and social benefits. So one of the areas of concern is that they need to do a comparative analysis in terms of the data held at the Home Office in relation to welfare benefits, because there is effectively double dipping by applicants in terms of obtaining of the advantages of South Africa”,

The task force also proposed that Interior Ministry officials responsible for financial losses due to serious misconduct should be subject to deductions from their pensions to reimburse the ministry.

The team’s head of legal, Ricky Singh, said he would discuss possible implementation with the SIU.

Meanwhile, the ministry’s deputy director general for anti-corruption and security, Conny Moitse, revealed that 80 civil servants were dismissed and 46 civil servants resigned between January 2022 and May 2024.

“Between April 2022 and September 2023, the ministry identified 234 incidents involving 310 employees, which were referred to the employee engagement department for possible disciplinary action due to misconduct,” she said .

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