An Eastern Cape woman has been found guilty of recruiting local women to marry foreign nationals and issuing fake marriage certificates.

Nomabandla Manjezi (47) appeared at the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Port Elizabeth on Wednesday, January 20 and was found guilty on four counts of corruption and two counts of fraud. The matter was postponed to February 18, 2021, for sentencing.

Manjezi, along with another person named Abu Bokar (46), was arrested in 2017 following a tip-off received by immigration officers about the arranged fraudulent marriage certificates between South African women and foreign nationals.

Their operations were accosted during a waylay investigation in March 2017, resulting in them being charged for fraud and corruption.

Their premises, which included a cell phone shop in North End and a house in New Brighton was searched. Documents linked to their criminal operations were found in a container at the New Brighton premises and were seized for further investigation.

An investigation by the Hawks’ Serious Corruption Investigation team revealed that the duo recruited young women from New Brighton, Kwazakele and Zwide, then paid them between R200 and R300 each to marry Bangladeshi nationals, whilst other local women were unaware that they were married to foreign nationals.

Bokar appeared in the same court on August 14, 2018 and he pleaded guilty on two counts of fraud. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years.

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