Home Affairs Minister Dr Leon Schreiber says the department will cancel more than 2 000 fraudulently obtained study visas as part of a wider immigration crackdown.
Schreiber announced during an Inter-Ministerial Committee media briefing on Sunday.
He said the move follows a major Special Investigating Unit investigation that analysed more than a billion data points.
“The work from the SIU has actually made massive progress in this regard,” Schreiber said.
He said study visas were among the key categories affected by irregularities.
“I think we were starting with 2 000 study visas, which were really one of the key categories affected,” he said.
Rolling clean-up planned
Schreiber said the department would not treat the matter as a once-off audit.
Instead, he said Home Affairs needed an ongoing clean-up of its data and immigration systems.
The minister said the department still faced serious capacity challenges, with only 832 immigration inspectors deployed across the country.
Despite this, he said immigration enforcement had intensified through cooperation with the Border Management Authority, SAPS and the Department of Employment and Labour.
Schreiber said more than 40 000 enforcement actions had been recorded since January.
He said this showed the scale of work being done by a relatively small team.
Technology used to fight fraud
Schreiber said Home Affairs is using technology to strengthen immigration controls.
One key tool is the Electronic Travel Authorisation system, which verifies travellers before they enter South Africa.
The system is currently being used for short-stay visitors from China, India, Mexico and Indonesia.
It uses facial recognition and machine-learning technology to check passports and confirm identities.
Schreiber said the system had already stopped 5 158 people from getting tourist visas because of fraudulent passports or failed facial verification.
Government plans to expand the system globally and install facial recognition cameras at ports of entry.
Green ID book to be phased out
Schreiber also said the green barcoded ID book remains a major fraud risk.
“The Green ID is the most defrauded piece of identity documentation in South Africa,” he said.
About 16 million green ID books are still in use.
Home Affairs wants to replace them with Smart IDs before eventually ending recognition of the green ID book.
Schreiber said 216 515 people had used bank branches to apply for Smart IDs since 9 March.
The service is already live at 178 bank branches and is expected to expand to 750 branches by the end of the year.
He said work is also underway on a voluntary Digital ID system, with the first phase expected within months.