South African forged passport

South African forged passport

I refer to an article published in The Jakarta Post on July
22, 1997 under the heading Expats involved in drug crimes by
Christiani Tumelap. Mention is made that nine of those arrested
for their alleged involvement in drug-related crimes were from
African countries, one of them being South Africa.

I would like to set the record straight. The foreigners were
identified as non-South African citizens traveling on forged or
stolen South African passports.

It is increasingly often the case that criminals acquire and
alter South African passports. When these criminals are
apprehended with South African travel documents, it appears as
though South African citizen are involved in illegal activities,
when in fact that is not the case.

South Africa has recently taken steps to make the forgery or
alteration of South African passports more difficult by
introducing computer readable passports. These steps have so far
been successful in limiting the forgery or alteration of our
passports.

BS KUBHEKA

Ambassador

South African Embassy

Jakarta