North West official in SA illegally, Motsoaledi says

The CFO of a North West government entity who accused the home affairs department of not responding to his court papers is using fraudulent documentation to be in SA, home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi says.

Motsoaledi said on Sunday that Kudakwashe Mpofu, the suspended CFO of North West Development Corporation, had been informed his permit was illegal. He said Mpofu was informed as “far back as June 23 2023 that his purported permanent residence permit is actually fraudulent”.

“I am here today to confirm that, according to our records, Mr Kudakwashe Mpofu’s permanent residence document is fraudulent and was not issued by the department of home affairs and we do not know where he obtained it. 

“We can confirm the permanent residence permit number appearing on Mr Mpofu’s document does not exist in our systems. We can further confirm that the control number appearing on Mr Mpofu’s purported document was not issued by the department ... but rather it was legitimately issued to somebody else. As to how Mr Mpofu came across that control number, we do not know,” Motsoaledi said. 

On March 10, the Sunday World reported that Mpofu, a Zimbabwean national, was fighting to stop the home affairs department from deporting him. The paper reported he had complained that the department had failed to reply to his court papers. 

Motsoaledi said it was disappointing that Mpofu was able to work in a high position in government while using a fraudulent document. 

“It is a matter of national embarrassment that Mr Mpofu was able to obtain employment as the CFO at the North West department of economic development handling public funds. After ascertaining these facts about Mpofu, I immediately phoned the acting premier of North West, Nono Maloyi, and he told me that Mr Mpofu had already been suspended,” Motsoaledi said. 

However, Motsoaledi questioned why home affairs officials who had discovered the fraud had not opened a case with the police. He also questioned why the human resources division in the North West department of economic development had not done a due diligence to verify Mpofu’s documentation. 

Motsoaledi said the matter had since been handed over to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to investigate. 

Motsoaledi said that after his department had revealed that prophet Shepherd Bushiri was in the country illegally, 14 home affairs officials had submitted a petition to him demanding that the department's counter-corruption unit “must stop investigating their errors”. 

This petition has since led to the establishment of a ministerial task team headed by former director-general Cassius Lubisi. 

“The question is whether Mr Mpofu’s case one of these so-called errors, that were not supposed to be investigated. We believe the SIU will provide answers. As home affairs we’ve opened a criminal case at the Pretoria Central Police Station.”

Motsoaledi said that as a result of Lubisi’s report, home affairs had since asked President Cyril Ramaphosa to issue a proclamation for the SIU to investigate visa issues at the department. 

He repeated his statement that “people want us to focus on lizards while crocodiles are loitering around”. 

“With the work of Lubisi's team and the SIU, the days of the crocodiles like Mr Mpofu are numbered. From the work of the Lubisi team we have reason to believe that these crocodiles are found all over the country in very high positions. I want to say, their days are numbered,” Motsoaledi said.