Double-faced immigration officials suspended
Tefo Pheage | Tuesday November 29, 2016 18:00
The three officials were served with letters last week pending investigations into the matter.
They are alleged to have colluded with the 35-year-old Zimbabwean man, Bhekizwe Nkomazana, who was recently nabbed along with three Batswana, after allegedly obtaining a Botswana birth certificate and masquerading as his late boss to steal at least P3.9 million from the deceased’s estate. Nkomazana was employed by Tlhapane (89) as a gardener. The quartet appeared before Extension II magistrate last week charged with an attempting to conceal the death of Tlhapane, assume his identity with a false Omang, and then steal his cash and assets.
A official at the National Registration office Sebastian Okello-Wengi, who drafted the letters, informed Mmegi that the matter was still internal and that they were not ready to speak to the media about it, as investigations are still ongoing.
“We therefore cannot grant you any interviews at this point.
We can neither confirm nor deny that they have been suspended,” he said. Mmegi however can reveal that the trio were slapped with the suspension letters last week.
Meanwhile, director of immigration Mabuse Pule has distanced the passport issuing department from the mess saying “when a person approaches the passport department with an Omang seeking a passport, it is considered that he or she is a citizen.”
He continued: “So if fraud took place, then the case is at Omang.”
A family member of the deceased, Oupa Matsepe has expressed shock at the lax gatekeeping processes that have allowed this to befall their family, further questioning the checks and balances of the corpses repatriation processes.
Tlhapane was admitted on February 25, 2016 suffering from a mild illness and was taken to a doctor where he was discharged on March 14. He was later admitted in June when he could not eat by himself and subsequently succumbed to the illness on August 10. Matsepe outrightly denied that any family member was informed.
Investigating Officer Senior Superintendent Sergeant Marapo told the Extension II magistrate court that the corpse had been kept at a South African mortuary since June 20 this year before being taken to Travellers Funeral Parlour in Tlokweng on September 1, 2016. He had also told the court that he went to the Tlokweng border to verify the arrival of the corpse on the said day, whereupon he learnt that Nkomazana’s co-accused in the theft of the old man’s money, Ketshepile Lompehu, had claimed to be the deceased’s daughter. The 89-year-old came to Botswana in 1962 as a refugee.
He was the founding secretary general of ANC Youth League Sophiatown, South Africa branch and had worked his path from being a salesman to running multi-million pula companies.