State capture opened door to corruption in every sector: Schreiber

Home Affairs Minister, Dr Leon Schreiber speaking at a government event.

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Home Affairs Minister, Dr Leon Schreiber, says state capture has opened the door to corruption in almost every sector within the country.

He was speaking at the launch of the Border Management and Immigration Anti-Corruption Forum (BMIACF) in Pretoria.

The department in collaboration with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) launched this initiative which aims to intensify efforts to combat corruption in the sector.

Schreiber says sophisticated syndicates have organised themselves within the Home Affairs Department to extort and defraud both South Africans and immigrants.

“Once the top echelon of the establishment were seen to endorse corruption at the very highest institutions of state, a message cascaded throughout society that extortion, fraud and theft have just become how we do things now in SA. The construction mafia and the construction industry that have been mentioned are well known example of how this pattern has spread to different sectors of society. But it is by no means the only such mafia or syndicate that has infiltrated and even merged with the system that it seeks to subvert,” says Schreiber.