Unwitting Wives Are Prey in South Africa Scandal By SHARON LaFRANIERE JOHANNESBURG, Sept. 4 - The first Sylvia Tshigo knew of her marriage was the day her husband showed up at her door in March 2003, requesting a divorce. The 37-year-old Nigerian husband had in hand an official marriage certificate from South Africa's Department of Home Affairs, declaring that she had wed him in 2000, she said. Now he wanted out of the marriage, he told her, because his mother in Nigeria was critically ill and he had to go home. At first, Ms. Tshigo said, she was flabbergasted. Then she was furious at him - and at the South African home affairs minister, South Africa's immigration and passport czar, for marrying her off without so much as a fare-thee-well. "Home Affairs is supposed to be people who can be trusted," Ms. Tshigo, 31, said in a telephone interview. "I am so very disappointed." Thousands of South African women would agree. In the last three years, the Department of Home Affairs has ruefully admitted, 3,387 bewildered brides have complained that their recorded "I dos" were really "I never dids." More than 2,000 marriages have been annulled. Another 1,000 or so are under review. The department itself is also under review. As investigators have discovered, marrying a South African woman without her knowledge has been as simple as paying a bribe, averaging about $750, to one of many willing home affairs officials. The certificates are valuable because a foreigner who weds a South African is automatically entitled to permanent residence and a work permit, without which the foreigner could be deported. As the most advanced and prosperous nation in the region, South Africa is a magnet for immigrants seeking a new life - and criminals seeking new identities. After Ms. Tshigo's ersatz marriage, for instance, her husband was hired as a doctor at a major public hospital in Pretoria, enjoying the rights of a South African citizen. "That man," she said bitterly, "he has benefited a lot with my name." That will not be so easy from now on. A law Parliament adopted on Aug. 19 will require foreigners who marry South Africans to wait five years before applying for anything but temporary residence and work permits. Meanwhile, though, the number of irate brides is multiplying. In addition to the more than 3,000 cases suspected or proved, another 779 fake marriages have come to light in the last month alone as a result of a public campaign by the department asking all South African women who are single to verify their marital status. "We know of people who have gone to the office to get married, and on the day of their marriage found out they were married to somebody else," said Leslie Mashokwe, a spokesman for the department. "Or they have lost their ID, and the new one comes back with a different surname." "Can you imagine? You suddenly discover you are no more Miss X, you are now Mrs. Whatever." Not good for the department either. But then, the department is used to it. Its own director general has said corruption is endemic to the department. Its new minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, has vowed to root it out. One survey found that refugees and asylum seekers routinely bribe officials to process their applications. In May, a dozen officials were arrested and charged with selling false birth certificates. That same month, South Africa's police commissioner said British authorities discovered "boxes and boxes of South African passports" at the London home of a terrorist suspect. But the marriage scheme beats all in terms of the sheer number of cases that have come to light. "We have been arresting officials who have been involved in this scam left, right and center," Mr. Mashokwe said. Asked how many officials were involved, he replied, "It could run into hundreds." In June and July, 39 officials were arrested in the Free State Province alone, he said. Another official was discovered to have single-handedly registered 500 false marriages in neighboring Mpumalanga. Some of those arrested have been charged with fraud and corruption. The husbands came from all over: Nigeria, Egypt, Pakistan, China, India, Bangladesh and Brazil. In early August, investigators stumbled upon an apparent middleman. At the Johannesburg airport, a Pakistani man arriving on Kenya Airlines deliberately left his luggage on the plane so he could reclaim it at the lost luggage office, thereby evading customs, said Ms. Nqakula, the new home affairs minister. But airline workers opened his bag and found at least 38 Pakistani passports, she said in a speech. They alerted the police, who followed the man directly to two Department of Home Affairs offices in Johannesburg. There, he collected permits normally given to foreigners with South African spouses. Had he not been caught, Ms. Nqakula said, "38 South African women would have been married to these people, probably without their knowledge." The brides are not always so unknowing. In at least 245 cases, Mr. Mashokwe said, investigators determined that the women were probably complicit in the scheme. "These are unsophisticated women," he said. "In return for their kindness or their inconvenience, they get paid in groceries at the end of the month or cellphones or air time." Ms. Tshigo is unemployed, living in a corrugated iron shack painted pink in Mabopane, northwest of Pretoria. But she is plenty savvy. She put off the request of the Nigerian, whom she identified as Benjamin Mozie. When he called her again, she brought a police officer with her. But then, she said, the police told her if she pressed charges, the judge might deport Mr. Mozie and make it impossible for her to divorce him. That was in March 2003. She is still trying to sort out the matter. "I don't want a divorce," she said. "I didn't marry that man. They must simply cancel everything. Because, my name now is not nice." In the interim, Mr. Mozie has vanished. Olga Mzileni, chief of internal medicine at the GaRankuwaHospital in Pretoria, said that he stopped coming to work on May 26, 2003. "He didn't resign," she said. "He disappeared." Although state records show he was registered as a general practitioner in February 2002, she said, she now wonders if he was even a doctor. Had he not married Ms. Tshigo, he might still have been hired, but he would have had to obtain permission from the state health department. A department spokesperson said, "Maybe he wanted to speed things up." Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company -- ****************************************************************************** *************** * Madiba K. Saidy, Ph.D * Research Scientist, Atomic Energy of Canada * Department of Energy & Natural Resources Canada * ==== * Secretary/Treasurer * Joint Division of Surface Science * The Chemical Institute of Canada & The Canadian Association of Physicists ****************************************************************************** *************** ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To Search in the Gambia-L archives, go to: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/CGI/wa.exe?S1=gambia-l To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~