Law enforcement officers are conducting inspections to ensure compliance with the Immigration Act.
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The Department of Home Affairs in KwaZulu-Natal has made significant strides in addressing immigration concerns, finalising 813 cases for investigation in the third quarter of the 2025/26 financial year. Provincial manager Cyril Mncwabe disclosed these figures during a recent meeting of the KZN Council Against Crime held in Durban.
Mncwabe highlighted that the head office normally sends cases to KZN for investigation.
“Those are the cases where most of the time we have got to check, to do reports and investigate something like marriages of convenience...some of the foreign nationals getting married to South Africans and it’s detected in some instances that those are the marriages of convenience, not necessarily just for the obtaining of our documents as a country,” Mncwabe explained.
“In quarter three, we have finalised 813 such cases as a province.”
Mncwabe highlighted that in the same reporting period, they conducted 148 law enforcement operations.
He also said that they are supposed to ensure that 100% of detected employers are charged in contravention of the Immigration Act.
“In the third quarter, we’ve managed to detect and charge 48 employers that are in contravention of the Immigration Act,” Mncwabe said.
He said that the annual performance plan sets a 100% target for detecting transgressors in contravention of the Immigration Act. In the third quarter, the performance achieved was 1,299 detections.
Deportation
Mncwabe said deportation happens in two ways:
Cyril Mncwabe, Provincial Manager of Home Affairs, discusses the department’s recent achievements in immigration enforcement at the KZN Council Against Crime meeting.
Image: Supplied
“In quarter three, in terms of the transfers to Lindela, we have already done 998. However, the transfers to Lindela from quarter one to quarter three is 2,141. Those are the people that we have transferred to Lindela after they had been confirmed by the courts,” Mncwabe said.
“On direct deportation, that is Swaziland and certain areas of Mozambique, and Lesotho we have already done 1,093 from quarter one to quarter three.”
Illegal and undocumented foreign nationals
Mncwabe said the department is using digitisation as a strategy to mitigate the issue of illegal and undocumented foreign nationals, thus improving system monitoring.
He said they are also looking at the review of the immigration legislation (White paper on Citizenship, Immigration and Refugee Protection), which has been developed and consulted upon.
“We are also trying to strengthen the area of deportation of all confirmed cases,” Mncwabe said.
He said the department assists and participates in the confirmation of the status of foreigners, roadblocks, labour inspections, law enforcement operations, business inspections, deportation of undocumented foreigners, testifying in immigration-related matters in court, and the identification of people.
He added that with these strategies, they also encourage legal migration channels by ensuring people are aware of what necessary documents they need to have when they enter the country, and ensure that they renew the necessary documents.
“Normally we do not give documents for a lifetime. Those documents have a lifespan and they have to be renewed. That is when, in some instances, you would find that people came to South Africa legally, but they became illegal whilst inside the country,” Mncwabe said.
thobeka.ngema@inl.co.za