SA man fined R3000 or 10 days in jail for forging Zimbabwean work permit

A 49-YEAR-OLD South African was last Friday fined R3 000 or 10 days in jail for illegally entering the country using forged travel documents following the expiry of his Zimbabwean work permit.

Fourie Nico who is employed by Africa Super Fuel Company at the Beitbridge depot was convicted on his own plea of guilty for contravening a section of the Immigration Act when he appeared before Beitbridge resident magistrate, Miss Gloria Takundwa.

The forged passport was forfeited to the State as part of the sentence.

Charges are that on February 5 Nico was issued with a notice to leave Zimbabwe by the Department of Immigration following the expiry of his work permit and this was also endorsed on his passport when he left the country.

For the love of Zimbabwe, Nico attempted to enter the country through Beitbridge Border Post on April 21 using his passport whose endorsed pages had been pulled off.

However, this was discovered by the immigration officer when he tendered his passport for clearance.

Nico was then denied entry and ordered to go back to South Africa. Determined to enter the country, Nico later on approached another immigration officer using a different passport and he was again refused entry and went back to South Africa.

The State further alleges that on July 7 Nico arrived at Beitbridge using the same passport and had a forged Zimbabwean immigration date stamp and falsely declared that he was on transit.

The offence was discovered four days later by an alert immigration officer who then tipped the police leading to his arrest.

Mr Jabulani Mberesi prosecuted.