[imagesource:flickr]

Police have arrested a Zimbabwean man who tried to enter the Presidential inauguration by using a dead person’s identity.

As sinister as it may sound, the detained man informed police that he purchased the identification card from a home affairs officer and has been using it since 2000, so rather than anything malicious, it’s just a case of Home Affairs corruption in practice.

The State Security Agency flagged the identity when the individual tried to get accreditation to attend the festivities at the Union Buildings today.

Police spokesperson Brigadier Athlenda Mathe confirmed the incident.

“On Monday the individual presented himself at the accreditation centre and was trying to obtain accreditation. He apparently said he works for a service provider. The system immediately detected he is using an ID that belonged to a deceased person”.

“We immediately apprehended him and he is in police custody. The charges he is facing are fraud and contravention of the Immigration Act.”

Mathe said police are working with home affairs to determine how he obtained the ID, as well as investigating the cause of death of the person to who the identity belonged.

African leaders started arriving on Tuesday to witness Ramaphosa’s swearing-in. Heads of state from eSwatini, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, Angola, Tanzania and Uganda had also committed to attend the inauguration, along with China’s President Xi Jinping and Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.

The ANC’s allies from Palestine and Cuba arrived on Tuesday already.

Most of the ‘Western’ countries will not be here for the soirée, but US President Joe Biden and his counterparts in the EU have congratulated Ramaphosa on his second term after he was elected last week.

Despite the ‘security issue’ (brought to you by Home Affairs), President Cyril Ramaphosa has now made his “solemn commitment to be a President for all South Africans”, and Ramaphoria Pt II is off to the races.

[source:timelive&