The Hawks’ serious commercial crime investigations team in Germiston on Tuesday nabbed a couple for fraud after they payed ghost employees.
The couple and their co-accused, who will also face charges of money-laundering, were arrested in Benoni and Etwatwa in Daveyton, on the east of Johannesburg.
Police spokesperson Captain Ndivhuwo Mulamu said in a statement that a 36-year-old alleged fraudster, Fancola Malekana, a former contract manager at the Benoni-based labour broker Workforce, had between 2017 and December 2020 altered former client’s employee banking details with his and transferred the monthly salaries.
“Further investigation revealed that Malekana shared equal fraudulent proceeds with his co-accused, Mlungisi Sakala, 36, who was employed by Workforce at National Rubber Matmin as an HR manager for the stated period,” said Mulamu.
An internal headcount conducted by Workforce revealed that several employees continuously received monthly payments even after they had resigned. Mulamu said these “ghost salaries” had cost the company more than R2-million over three years.
The matter was handed over to the Hawks for further probing.
“The investigation discovered that more ghost employees were allegedly created and their salaries were reportedly transferred into another co-accused, a 35-year-old Charlotte Sakala’s bank account, Mlungisi’s wife,” added Mulamu.
“A warrant of arrest was issued and successfully executed against the trio and were subsequently charged. During the trio’s court appearance at the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court a day after their apprehension, the court granted them R5 000 bail each.”
The case has been deferred and the suspects are expected back in court in April for docket disclosure.
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