Africa-Press – South-Africa. Two men have each been sentenced to eight years imprisonment for corruption after demanding that foreign farmworkers pay a bribe to have immigration documents drawn up.
Mpumalanga Hawks spokesperson Captain Dineo Sekgotodi said Robert Booth, 53, and Berry Victor Weigemoed, 35, had been arrested in March in Mbombela.
The arrests came after they visited a farm outside Mbombela, dressed in Department of Home Affairs uniforms.
Booth works for the department, while Weigemoed doesn’t.
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They approached the farm foreman and asked if he and 11 other foreigners working on there had the correct permits and immigration documentation.
The foreman said they had passports and asylum seeker permits but was told he and the other workers would be arrested if they did not have “relevant papers”, said Sekgotodi.
“They promised to arrange papers for them, provided they pay R500 each [and] promised to come back on the 16 March 2022 to give them the papers and to collect money.”
An undercover operation was planned and the two men were arrested when they returned to the farm.
“The accused returned to the farm to hand over the permits for the 12 farmworkers in exchange for R5 000. They were arrested immediately after receiving the money,” said Sekgotodi.
They were each sentenced to eight years imprisonment, of which half is suspended for five years on the condition that they are not found guilty of corruption during the period of suspension. They were also declared unfit to possess firearms.
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