ARE YOU MARRIED?

Are you married?
Babalo Ndenze
December 06 2007 at 06:55AM

About 10 000 South Africans, most of them women, have found they have been married off to someone they don't known in fake unions registered since 2001, the Department of Home Affairs has disclosed. According to its figures, 9 796 people have reported being married fraudulently to foreigners. The department has sorted out 8 683 of these cases. Through its Check Your Marital Status Campaign, launched in 2001, it found that most cases were in Gauteng. This year, 1 983 cases have been reported. Of these, 1 589 marriages have been deleted from the department's records, and 325 cases have been referred to court.


By last month the department had been alerted to 1 616 cases in Gauteng, 120 in the Eastern Cape, 97 in KwaZulu-Natal, 41 in Limpopo, 21 in Mpumalanga, 33 in North West, 14 in the Free State, 18 in the Northern Cape, 10 in the Western Cape and 13 in unnamed provinces. Between November 15 and 21 alone, 37 marriage investigations were launched and 51 marriages were expunged, with 35 cases being referred to the high court.

Only 16 men had their marriages annulled, and only one man features in the 325 cases referred to court. Spokesperson Mantshele Tau said the department did not have figures for each of the nationalities responsible for the fraud. "We are just interested in the crime, not race. But (fraudulent marriages) are on the decline if you look at the statistics since 2001. We have been encouraging the public, especially young women, to go to our offices to check, if they don't have the Internet."

Some women willingly married foreigners. "It's not an easy thing to just get out of a marriage. You have to go through a stressful process, divorce. Some (women are) offered R5 000 or R10 000 by these guys."

Marital status may be checked online on the home affairs website: www.dha.gov.zababalo.ndenze@inl.co.za

This article was originally published on page 3 of Cape Times on December 06, 2007