A top South African diplomat stationed in Dubai is accused of arranging break-ins at his offices as part of an elaborate scheme to sell visas for UAE citizens to enter South Africa.
A preliminary investigation by the departments of international relations & co-operation (Dirco) and of home affairs found that Andrew Tsepo Lebona, South Africa’s consul-general in Dubai, committed several security breaches. They include allowing a UAE citizen to illegally enter the mission through the roof and ceiling on two separate occasions in January and July 2023.
The “burglaries” were apparently committed to obtain visa and passport-related documents as part of a scheme to issue illegitimate travel papers, work permits and other such credentials.
Well-placed government sources said this week that the probe had also found that Lebona arranged for his son to illegally obtain diplomatic travel authority.
According to the sources, the probe was launched after whistleblowers alerted Dirco and the department of home affairs to Lebona’s alleged malfeasance.
Dirco has recalled him from Dubai to explain himself.
Based on the initial investigations, we are calling the consul-general back to Pretoria to explain some of these findings. Further action will flow from that process
— Dirco DG Zane Dangor
Lebona is employed by Dirco but also represents the department of home affairs in Dubai and performs various functions for South Africans in the city, such as issuing them with travel documents.
He is responsible for assisting South Africans living or holidaying in Dubai should they encounter legal and other problems requiring government intervention.
According to the government insiders, the probe found that Lebona arranged for his 45-year-old son, Tumelo Michael Lebona, to be issued with a UAE diplomatic visa even though he did not meet the qualifying criteria — being younger than 25 or in the employ of Dirco.
Officials said Lebona had duped the UAE ministry of foreign affairs into registering his son as a Dirco employee qualifying for diplomatic status.
Holders of diplomatic visas and passports enjoy special privileges such as immunity from criminal prosecution and do not go through customs when on international travel.
Other officials said Tumelo Lebona was using his father’s position to solicit business opportunities in the UAE and had travelled to South Africa with businesspeople from the wealthy nation for similar purposes.
Lebona, the sources said, allowed his son to sit in on official meetings at the mission, thereby committing another potential security breach.
Zane Dangor, the director-general of Dirco, told the Sunday Times this week that following the preliminary findings against Lebona he had been instructed to immediately return home to account for his alleged security breaches and other offences.
“Based on the initial investigations, we are calling the consul-general back to Pretoria to explain some of these findings,” said Dangor in response to questions. “Further action will flow from that process.”
By the time of publication Lebona had not responded to calls, texts and e-mails seeking comment.
Home affairs minister Leon Schreiber said on Saturday he was involved in “ongoing engagements” with other relevant ministers “on how we can strengthen and improve the visa regime to clamp down on corruption”.
The department of home affairs has a contract with international technology firm VFS Global to administer visa and passport applications at South African missions where it has no staff.
For as long as we fail to use technology to make up for the capacity shortfall and close the gaps for human discretion, it is not a question of if abuses will be exposed. It is only a matter of when.
— Home affairs minister Leon Schreiber
The department charges at least R2,600 for a study visa or work permit. But sources said Lebona, in cahoots with some of his juniors at the consulate, was running a parallel operation in which they issued handwritten visas and pocketed the fees themselves.
Shortly before starting his four-year assignment to Dubai in August 2022, Lebona appeared on Metro FM’s afternoon drive show along with his son in a one-hour “father and son conversation” feature.
During the radio show, Lebona spoke about his role as “a senior diplomat” who had worked for the French embassy in Sandton and at various South African missions in Europe.
Lebona was repeatedly referred to as “his excellency” and described Dubai as a “strategic place” for the more than 120,000 South Africans he said were living in the UAE.
In the interview, he noted he would fly “Emirates, business class” to take up his position in Dubai.
The bombshell accusations against Lebona came during a week in which Schreiber, during a meeting with his parliamentary oversight committee, slammed the practice of issuing handwritten visas.
Schreiber told MPs that the 95 Libyans arrested at a security training facility in Mpumalanga had received irregular handwritten study visas from a Dirco staffer in Tunisia. The Libyans have since been deported to their home country.
However, the Lebona case appears to offer further evidence of how deep the rot runs in the issuance of visas, passports and working permits at South African missions abroad.
Schreiber said until Dirco and home affairs were fully digital, like the South African Revenue Service is, suspicions of fraud and corruption would continue to hang over South African travel documents.
“Because I can tell you honestly and sincerely that instances like these — and potentially much worse — will keep happening for as long as home affairs processes are manual, paper-based and vulnerable to human discretion.
“For as long as we fail to use technology to make up for the capacity shortfall and close the gaps for human discretion, it is not a question of if abuses will be exposed. It is only a matter of when,” he said.
“If we allow things to continue as they are, home affairs will simply remain a department of firefighters. We will appear before parliament repeatedly for the next five years to account on how we are putting out fires. Then some of us will leave, and the fires will continue burning ever brighter.”
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