home affairs: we annulled over 1000 fake marriages

About 2000 fake marriages are dealt with each year by the Department of Home Affairs.

On Wednesday, while delivering his budget vote speech in Parliament, Motsoaledi expressed that since April last year, Home Affairs annulled a total of over 1,000 of the 2,132 fake marriages.

Thami Swartbooi, last month, was thrust into the spotlight by Eyewitness News as a fake marriage victim after it was discovered that an unidentified woman (by the publication) reportedly stole Swartbooi’s identity.

“Two kids which she never met before were registered as hers in legal documents. She couldn’t get officially married, because the law would not allow anybody to marry twice unless in the case of divorce or death. Her life went into a tailspin and a virtual hold. She lived this horror for 14 years, fortunately, we reached Thami when the story was reported in the media and we gave her back her identity.”

“We have asked her to become an ambassador of Home Affairs on identity fraud and fraudulent marriages. We want to work with her to identify women who are already living the situation that she went through,” said Motsoaledi.