South Africa immigration: Brides-for-cash suspects arrested

“By that time, they got citizenship, so they brought more people.

“That’s the scam they were [allegedly] running.”

It is not clear how many people were involved in the alleged scheme or which countries the alleged payees came from.

Police say they are analysing computers and hard drives from the scene for more evidence.

The alleged office is housed in an unassuming building on a suburban road.

It was operating as a “clandestine home affairs office”, Col Robert Netshiunda told national broadcaster SABC, external.

“They were facilitating marriages, visas and other services that Home Affairs would provide to South Africans.”

The sophisticated operation may have involved an insider at the government department for Home Affairs, according to police, who say they have identified but not arrested a potential suspect.

South Africa boasts the continent’s biggest economy, attracting jobseekers and migrants from the wider region, as well as smaller numbers from Europe and Asia, external.

In recent years there have been anti-immigration protests and waves of violence targeted at immigrants.

It became a campaign issue for May’s general election, and the Patriotic Alliance (PA) that is now part of South Africa’s coalition government was among political groups accused of stoking xenophobia.