Hawks raid Pretoria High Court over fake Court Notices for undocumented migrants
The Hawks, South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, carried out a dramatic search and seizure operation at the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday morning in connection with a widening corruption probe involving fraudulent court documents.
Led by the Serious Corruption Investigation unit, the raid targeted suspicions that a court employee had been unlawfully issuing fake Notices of Motion to undocumented foreign nationals.
These documents, which are typically used to initiate legal proceedings, were allegedly being used to delay or block deportations, raising alarm over potential abuse of the judicial system.
According to Hawks spokesperson Colonel Katlego Mogale, the operation follows intelligence about systematic irregularities within the court’s administrative processes. “The Directorate is investigating serious allegations of corruption related to the issuance of fraudulent court documents,” Mogale said. “Our team executed a search and seizure operation to gather evidence. No arrests have been made at this stage, but the investigation is ongoing.”