Limpopo Woman, 15 Fake Disables, and 3 SASSA Officials Arrested for R300,000 Worth of Fraud
You must have heard of Beauty and the Beast but have you ever come across a beast with brains? A Limpopo woman who’s aged 45 years has added to the cold devilry in South Africa. Lately, the South African Social Security Agency has been facing issues of its own kind.
Stick around while we delve into super interesting yet exclusively creepy incidents that happened in South Africa.
A Gang Causes R300,000 Loss to SASSA SRD
A woman named; Angelina Morongwe, ganged up with 15 people to conspire access to SASSA SRD. The woman recruited 15 members of the group who acted as disabled to pocket the SASSA SRD grant devoted to physically disabled citizens.
The incident was further reported by the spokesperson of Hawks; Capt Matimba Maluleke, who disclosed to TimesLIVE that the woman was a middleman and she conspired with three SASSA officials from the Tzaneen branch and conspired fraud with them:
“The accused conspired with three officials to recruit people from local communities to apply for disability grants though they were not disabled,”
Yes!, you read it right! The SASSA officials were also involved in this heinous act.
Because three SASSA officials also assisted the woman, the gang could dodge the physical examination which is mandatory before the disability grant is issued to a citizen. The spokesperson further explains the master plan of this group:
“During the investigation, it was discovered that after recruiting members of the public, Sassa officials would process the applications and the money would be paid to the beneficiaries.”
The beneficiaries supposedly shared their first payment with the SASSA officials which was further passed on to the accused. He enlightens us about the group’s division of shares:
“The beneficiaries would give the first payment to the officials who would share it with the accused. The department has suffered a loss of R300,000 due to these fraudulent activities.”
Penalty For the Group
The group has undergone the trial and the lead character has been sentenced to five years of imprisonment by the Polokwane specialized commercial crimes court. The other participants that include those who enacted disabled and the three SASSA officials will face the trial starting in September.
This incident may seem out of this world but to your suspense, SASSA has also witnessed such an incident before in 2015.
“During January 2015, the accused who were stationed at Tzaneen Sassa offices, recruited unemployed people from the area to apply for disability grants while they were not disabled,” Maluleke reported.
The two SASSA officials who were involved in this event were sentenced for disability grant fraud by the specialized commercial crimes court in Giyani.
What are your thoughts regarding the incident? Do you think the system will be able to restore transparency? Do you see a better future for SASSA SRD grants? We will be looking forward to your responses in the comment section.
