{"id":863110,"date":"2026-06-09T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T09:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=863110"},"modified":"2026-06-09T11:41:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T09:41:37","slug":"another-mafia-taking-south-africa-for-a-ride-blowing-money-on-ferraris-bentleys-and-porsches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/863110\/another-mafia-taking-south-africa-for-a-ride-blowing-money-on-ferraris-bentleys-and-porsches\/","title":{"rendered":"Another mafia taking South Africa for fools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yet another criminal syndicate has been exposed in South Africa, abusing the country’s Traffic Register Numbers (TRN) system to aid illegal migration and fraudulent vehicle purchases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The scheme was recently exposed by the Department of Home Affairs and outlined by the Portfolio Committee on the DHA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The TRN is a system which allows foreign nationals to drive in South Africa by issuing a document to foreign drivers. The documents do not expire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DHA noted that a TRN is crucial for vehicle identification in systems like eNaTIS and is essential for transactions by both individuals and non-legal entities in South Africa. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Individuals must provide a foreign ID or passport to ensure compliance with legal standards. For non-legal entities, obtaining a TRN is vital,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a DHA investigation found that about a million TRN applications were submitted using fraudulent documents, and that the TRNs were then used as substitutes for visas and identification in other transactions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The investigation around TRNs mostly focused on operations at the Barkly West offices, where the portfolio committee noted that the system was infiltrated by syndicates that facilitated the fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within 20 minutes of issuance at the office, TRNs were duplicated in Cape Town, using a single phone number to register numerous other TRNs, it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DHA found that most applicants were residents who used the same address. It also found deliberate manipulation of asylum seeker permit numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Captured numbers on eNaTIS did not meet the DHA’s alphanumeric requirement and could not be traced to the National Immigration Identification System (NIIS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A high number of foreign passports could not be traced on the eMCS or MCS systems to confirm the holders\u2019 travel information into and out of the Republic, which raises the question of the legality of the applicants in the country,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nationalities who abused the TRN system were mostly Nigerians, Zimbabweans, Somalis, and Ethiopians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreign nationals used TRN documents to open bank accounts and, in some instances, to justify their stay in the country. They also bought luxury supercars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DHA noted that data received from the Department of Transport, matched against its systems, showed that foreign nationals were using TRNs to acquire luxury vehicles despite having visa applications rejected under different categories of visas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gauteng was the epicentre of luxury assets acquired, with Porsche being the outstanding car brand of choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Government taking corrective measures<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The fraud was flagged by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his Sunday address on tackling illegal immigration in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa said the Department of Transport will soon be working on regulations to align policy and legislation to close these loopholes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most concerning is that eNaTIS can capture applications without identification document information, and it lacks mechanisms to verify submitted documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lawmakers said that the TRNs should be modified and linked with systems at the Department of Home Affairs to curb abuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also called for more funding for the Border Management Authority and for inter-governmental cooperation to root out syndicates that facilitate this kind of fraud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DHA said the immediate response should be for the Department of Transport to consider withdrawing the TRN of all TRN holders whose details are not verified in the DHA system. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It added that the department should review the process for issuing TRNs to ensure the validity period of TRNs aligns with the visa status of foreign nationals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“This should include implementing an expiry mechanism linked to the individual\u2019s authorised period of stay in the country, as well as conducting regular updates and deactivations in accordance with visa and passport expiry dates.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the DHA, it plans to push ahead with its goal of creating an online digital verification interface platform that will be used by all government institutions, universities, employers or agencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This platform would electronically confirm the authenticity of documents, identities, qualifications, licences or any other records presented for government services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yet another criminal syndicate has been exposed in South Africa, abusing the country’s systems to aid illegal migration and fraudulent vehicle purchases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":776310,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[17969,20325,21952],"class_list":["post-863110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-dha","tag-dot","tag-mafia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863110"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863110\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":863137,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863110\/revisions\/863137"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/776310"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}