Immigrants officer sentenced for asking for bribery

Estimated reading time: 3 minute(s)

Hawks says they are happy to have secured a successful conviction of a 40 years old immigration officer who was stationed at O.R Tambo international airport.

The incident is said to have occurred six (6) years ago, on September 7th, 2019 where the now convicted Lee-Ann Cloete was responsible for administering travel documents belonging to a Thai national who had just landed, on the way to meet with her partner who was in Durban.

Cloete claimed that the documents were not in order. She then demanded money from the traveller to allow entry into South Africa. With no cash on hand, the traveller contacted her companion, who subsequently transferred R3,000 through an E-Wallet service.

Following the transaction, Ms. Cloete stamped the passport and permitted entry.Unbeknownst to her, the matter was later reported to the Hawks, as a result, she was arrested following further investigations on the matter.

Only now on January 19th, 2025, she was fined R 30 000 or face six years’ imprisonment, which was also suspended for five years, by the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court.