THE police prohibited immigrants unit intends questioning the most powerful civil servant in Mpumalanga, director general Coleman Nyathi, on Monday after discovering that vital documentary records are missing from his Home Affairs files. The probe follows reports that Nyathi might be an illegal Zimbabwean migrant to South Africa who lied about his nationality to qualify for a top government job. Mpumalanga unit commander, Captain David Chilembe, said on Friday it was “very strange” that there was no record of Nyathi’s parents or original family home in South Africa. He also said that Home Affairs was unable to trace a series of Nyathi’s other vital documents normally held in the country’s population register. Nyathi has repeatedly dismissed the allegations as part of a smear campaign by corrupt officials, and insists he was born in New Brighton in Port Elizabeth in 1951. Nyathi insists he has relatives in Soweto who can confirm his nationality, but refuses to name the relatives yet. The four-week old police investigation is separate from a wider Public Service Commission (PSC) probe into Nyathi and 72 other top officials’ educational qualifications.