Questions about citizenship take centre stage in zama zama 'kingpin' case

The legitimacy of the South African nationality of one of the accused in the zama zama kingpin matter took centre stage in the magistrate’s court in Carletonville on Wednesday.

Dumisa Moyo and co-accused Bethuel Ngobeni, Nhlanhla Magwaca, Moseki Sechele, Thabo Sechele and Khudzai Mashaya face four counts of fraud, money laundering and contravention of the Precious Metals and Immigration acts.

Earlier this month, the Hawks raided the homes of the accused and seized luxury vehicles believed to have been acquired through the proceeds of illegal mining.

The other accused abandoned bail but Moyo proceeded to make an application and claimed he was a South African citizen. He stated several reasons he should be eligible for bail. However, the testimony of immigration officer Mothusi Letsogo contradicted his affidavit.

Moyo had made a claim that he was born in Welkom at the Bongani Regional Hospital and attended local schools. He said he was a breadwinner, had no family outside SA and that his panelbeating business would suffer if he was not released on the suggested R2,000 bail.

Letsogo told the court: “In 2020 I received a mandate through our chief operator to investigate the ID of the accused [as we suspected] they may have obtained them fraudulently and through misrepresentation.

“In my investigation, normally we go through our archives and request a notice of birth. On my request for the notice, it was found that there was no record. I believed that there was an element of corruption through some of our officials.”

He added that in the archives there was no record of birth for Moyo, only a form which had information on the accused and an address.

“You cannot obtain an ID without filling a BI24 form. There’s a further form called a BI19 which forms part of the application for an ID. I managed to get a BI19 in our archives with only the information of the applicants and the address. I got a statement written by the accused [wherein] he said he was born in Welkom ...  by mother Sholobani Gladys from Zimbabwe, who has since died.”

Letsogo told the court he visited the hospital at which Moyo claimed to have been born, and the school he claimed to have attended. Both drew blanks.

The immigration investigator questioned people living at Moyo's claimed previous address but no-one had heard of him. The neighbours who have been in the area since 1987 did not have a recollection of a Moyo family residing there either, Letsogo told the court.

Letsogo checked the movements of Erik Dumisa Moyo and found he was a frequent traveller to Zimbabwe.

“I state he has obtained SA documents fraudulently and through misrepresentation,” Letsogo told the court.

The case was postponed to October 27.

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