Johannesburg- Four suspects who work for the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) as data capturers had appeared in the Gqeberha Specialised Commercial Crime Court on Friday.
Suspects range from the age between 40 and 48 were arrested on Thursday by the East London based Serious Corruption Investigation team of the Hawks for fraud.
Philani Kwatsha (44) works at the Sassa offices in Keiskamahoek, while Mzuvukile Galela (40) and Mziwamadoda Ngoqo (46) are based at Graafreinet offices including a 48-year-old Vunyiwe Toto who works at Cradock offices.
The Eastern Cape Hawks spokesperson, Captain Yolisa Mgolodela said that the four suspects were allegedly tasked with the capturing and approving of Sassa grant payments. “On 22 March 2019, it was noted that a total of 1 216 grant payments were made to the beneficiaries to a total cash value of more than R5.7 million on the same day. It is further reported that the conduct made the management of Sassa to be suspicious and led to the verification of other transactions that proved to be false. All these payments were frozen by Sassa and the case was reported to the Hawks for investigation,” said Mgolodela.
Mgolodela also said that it is alleged that the suspects were working with an accomplice from Durban who allegedly recruited more than 400 poverty-stricken people throughout the country and asked them to open bank accounts from different banking institutions and requested the victims to leave their particulars including bank cards with the promise for jobs.
“The greatest percentage of the victims is reported to be from KwaZulu-Natal province. These bank accounts are reported to have been used for these transactions. The department was saved from a potential prejudice of more than R5.7 million as the payments were frozen before withdrawals. The Department of Social Development is reported to have been prejudiced more than R100 000 as the rightful beneficiaries had to be issued with vouchers to sustain during the period,” she said.
All four suspects were released on R2 000 bail each and the matter was remanded to 15 November for legal representation.
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