Eleven suspects in the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) fraud case will spend another month in custody after their bail application was postponed.
The accused, who face over 1,300 charges of cybercrime, fraud, and theft, appeared at Lenasia Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, where their bail proceedings were delayed.
The alleged fraud syndicate is accused of siphoning millions from Sassa through an elaborate card scam.
Aspiring pastor among the accused
Among the accused is a 29-year-old Ethiopian national, Abenezer Tilahyn, who has denied any involvement in the syndicate.
Tilahyn, an aspiring pastor, has denied any involvement in a large-scale fraud syndicate involving Sassa.
He is the fourth accused in the R260-million Sassa fraud case, in which 11 individuals face over 1,300 counts of cybercrime, fraud, and theft. The charges relate to a brazen Sassa card fraud syndicate that allegedly operated between August 2024 and March 2025.
However, the court heard from the investigating officer Lindokuhle Monama’s affidavit. He said that after arresting Tshilidzi Ramaphosa, accused 3, he told police that he was working alongside Tilahyn.
After he was also arrested, police searched him and found a 357 magnum revolver with six live ammunitions. They went on to search his place of residence and found 139 Sassa cards, 57 Tyme Bank cards, eight FNB cards, and six Wizzit cards.
R50k in cash confiscated
Police also confiscated R50, 000 in cash.
Of the 129 Sassa bank cards confiscated, 41 of them caused R3,8-million worth of damage to the agency.
“When the police asked him where he got the cards, he said he has a desktop and he creates them because he has a business. He then gave the police officials his address and they proceeded to the address. On their arrival they recovered a black desktop, a computer monitor, and yellow shop machine card. It was all confiscated.
“Accused 4 did not give an explanation regarding the money that was found in his possession,” said Monama in an affidavit.
Four of the Tyme Bank cards were later found to have illegal Sassa profiles linked to them. And these were allegedly created by Ramaphosa.
Other profiles on the Tyme Bank cards were allegedly created by different Sassa officials at their Johannesburg-based offices.
Sassa officials linked to Tyme Bank cards transactions
This led to the arrest of Siphesihle Dlamini, Phiwe Mkhuzangwe, and Paul Bowes, accused 5 to 7, respectively. They were arrested at the Johannesburg Sassa office.
Phumelele Myeza was arrested at her home. Paul Miyambo and Jaden Kenny, accused 10 and 11, handed themselves over.
“According to Sassa investigators, the accused did unlawfully and intentionally access a computer system or computer data to [withdraw] the Sassa database and unlawfully and intentionally intercept data from a computer system from Sassa,” said Monama.
“This is a Schedule 5 offence. And I strongly oppose bail to all the applicant based on the fact that they were working as syndicates.”
