Immigration Official pleads guilty to corruption

By: Staff Reporter

A department of Home Affairs Immigration Official Leballo Elias Maqalika 51, was sentenced to five years direct imprisonment by the Bloemfontein Magistrate Court on 12 December, after he pleaded guilty to charges of corruption.

Last year around May, the Hawks Serious Corruption Investigation in Bloemfontein received information that an immigration official had demanded an amount of R8000.00 from a foreign national whose brother was arrested whilst applying for asylum at the department of Home Affairs.

It is alleged that Maqalika and his co-accused, Dolly Goitsemang Sediti 40, demaded the money for not detaining the arrested foreign national.

He was arrested during an entrapment operation and charged, his co-accused was also arrested at a later stage.

She is scheduled to appear at the Bloemfontein Magistrate Court on 26 to 29 next year February for trial.