SA passports sold to al-Qaeda
2004-06-08 17:55
Cape Town - Members of al-Qaeda arrested with copies of South African passports must have bought the documents from corrupt home affairs officials, Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said on Tuesday.
Last month police commissioner Jackie Selebi said arrests made in South Africa five days before the elections had led to the arrests of al-Qaeda suspects internationally.
"In part of this operation, in London, the British police found boxes and boxes of South African passports in the home of one of these people... ," Selebi told parliament's portfolio committee on safety and security last month.
On Tuesday, Mapisa-Nqakula told MPs: "A few weeks ago members of al-Qaeda were arrested with our passports. A member of the department must have sold them those passports. It must have been a syndicate... we are trying to break these syndicates.
"We are working with safety and security, police and the Scorpions to rid our department of them."
She confirmed there was corruption in her department.
"I am sure that the department of home affairs is the lead department in corruption. If there is an illegal immigrant scam or a marriage scam, then the department must be involved.
"You read every month about the arrests going on... we are doing something about it."
She said most arrests were a result of investigations started by the department's anti-corruption unit and then taken over by police.
- SAPA