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All South Africans are paying the price for the continued corruption and laxity in the Department of Home Affairs. South Africans can no longer travel to the United Kingdom with temporary passports and have to pay dearly for visas. It is all the result of the fact that South African travel documents are viewed abroad as being unreliable. Every now and then one or other criminal appears somewhere in the world with a South African passport. This was now once again the case with a senior Al-Qaeda leader in East Africa. Fazul Abdullah Muhammad who was shot dead this weekend in Mogadishu was found with a South African passport in the name of Daniel Robinson.

What is furthermore upsetting is the fact that the passport had indicated that he had found himself snugly in South Africa until he left the country on 19 March. There is a great responsibility on the ANC government to repair the reputation of South African travel documents. Stricter border control is necessary because under the ANC, South Africa has become the hiding place for every second fugitive and crook.