Zimbabweans lose passports in border scam

Johannesburg - Scores of Zimbabweans working in South Africa illegally lost their passports when they were confiscated by South African police at a roadblock close to the Beit Bridge border post recently.

At the roadblock,the police searched the bus-a sprinter (pictured above) and found a batch of Zimbabwean passports stashed in a bag.The passports were to be stamped at both sides of the border posts in the absence of the holders.

This is a common but illegal practice by corrupt  immigration officers from both sides  who are paid bribes to stamp the passports without the holders having to travel to the border.

The confiscated passports belonged to Zimbabweans in Cape Town who are working in South Africa illegally using visitors visa instead of work permits.The tout who collected the passports and gave them to the driver disappeared when the owners turned the heat on him threatening to expose the racket to the police.

The tout was paid R500 for each passport.When I spoke to the tout before he switched off his mobile phone he told me that after collecting the passports he gave them to the driver who was identified as Lucky.

The driver was the one who was stopped by police at the roadblock.What has angered the passports holders is that when the police took the documents the crew did not bother to wait for them.They drove off and left the passports on the South African side of the border.

The crew work for a cross border transport company operating under the name Mash Tours and plies the Cape Town-Harare route.

One woman who lost her passport said she was introduced to the tout by a friend and paid R500 for it to be stamped while she remained in Cape Town where she is working.

The tout has changed his mobile number and is now unreachable.An immigration officer on the South African side of the border said they have in the past six months arrested scores of Zimbabweans involved in corrupt activities including passport scams and smuggling.

The officer said the Zimbabweans who lost their passports to the cross border operators should make a formal complaint or report to allow the department to institute criminal investigations against the Zimbabwe bus crew.

" If we find that the cross border transport operator violated our immigration regulations by involving himself in passport scams we will institute criminal proceedings and cancel his permit," said the South African officer.

But a source on the Zimbabwe side of the border said passports recovered by the South Africans were handed over to their side.If there was no follow up by the holders,the passports are forwarded to KG6 in Harare.

In September police in Bulawayo arrested Thulani Humbe after he was found in possession of 107 passports.Humbe who allegedly claimed to be a customs officer failed to account for the passports and was arrested.