TimesLIVE Investigations has established that the men had access to a network of police officers ranging from the Flying Squad to the Western Cape Provincial Detectives Organised Crime Unit.
Despite being declared a prohibited person in 2014, Tariq 'Baba' Tahir remains in the countryA web of corruption in the department of home affairs has allowed a suspected cartel leader to roam freely in South Africa despite him being declared a prohibited person nine years ago.
A police crime intelligence source said since 2007 Tahir has allegedly worked his way up to become Lajpal’s leader. The DHA admitted that he remains in South Africa because home affairs officials wiped his profile clean. In 2013 Tahir changed his surname to Bhatti and in the years since, DHA border control movement data show he has used the aliases Tariq Mahmood Guhlam, Tariq Mahmood Bhatti, Tariq Mehmood Bhatti and Tariq Tahir.
The document warns Tahir “manipulates government control systems and moves across international boundaries without any legal documentation”. During that same month, he was charged with kidnapping a Pakistani businessman in Sunnyside, Pretoria. Neither police nor the National Prosecuting Authority could say what happened to the case. NPA spokesperson Lumka Mahanjana said the SAPS was unable to locate the docket.
Last month Dawood provided the DHA with an affidavit about her relationship with Tahir, whom she says she met in Lenasia “in 2005/2006” when her father, Abdul Rafeek Dawood, was teaching Tahir “how to fix cars”. “The Counter Corruption Branch is following leads to get to the bottom of this. The department will revoke his status.”
Qoza said Tahir frequently travelled from South Africa on his Pakistani passport between November 2011 and the time his visa was first revoked in August 2014, “and has been a frequent traveller ever since”. “The Counter Corruption Branch found two-thirds of corruption cases emanate from the immigration branch, particularly the permitting unit ...
He said to stop the altering of unfavourable findings on a person’s immigration records, the department had installed firewalls on its internal databases. “Another option to try to lift a prohibition is through a rehabilitation application, which is done once you have been deported and have been living outside South Africa for a minimum of four years. You have to show you are truly remorseful and provide an affidavit and police clearance certificates among other things.”
The department of home affairs letter which declares Tariq Baba Tahir prohibited. Based on this letter, which was written in 2014, he should have been deported. He never was.Two official department of home affairs letters, written in 2014 to Tahir and his lawyer Riaan Louw, give insight into the processes which led to his prohibition declaration and the expungement of his marriage to Zainub Bibi Dawood.
“Now the High Commission of Pakistan, Pretoria has confirmed to the Department that he is known as Tariq Mehmood Tahir.” The second DHA letter, written by assistant director for permitting Rachelle Reyneke, informs Tahir he has been declared prohibited.
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