A 54-year-old former Stretford post office manager, Sepheka Stephen Masooa has appeared in the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Thursday, 13 June 2024, for over eighty counts of theft and fraud amounting to over R2.2 million.
The South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) systems linked to the South African Post Office (SAPO), were manipulated resulting in payments to ghost recipients. Fictitious accounting entries were made on the Webripost system reflecting payments to beneficiaries. The internal audit uncovered that such payments were inflated and could not be substantiated by valid documentation or supportive recipients bio-files.
The fraudulent activities were committed from around the beginning of 2020 lasting for just over a year. A case was registered at Evaton police station in August 2022 and transfered to the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation which has resulted in the arrest of Masooa on Wednesday, 12 June 2024 at his home in the Vaal Rand.
Further scrutiny and analysis has laid bare the fact that Masooa performed the majority of these fraudulent activities either in the wee hours or very late in the evenings which is outside of operating hours for the post office. The court has postponed the case to Friday, 21 June 2024, for appointment of a legal representative.
“We are pleased with the developments in this case. The greedy individuals who use unscrupulous ways to defraud state entities, specifically, SASSA in this case – an entity meant to cater for the less fortunate and the impoverished members of society better think again. It is clear the accused did not work alone in this regard. We will stop at nothing to ensure that the rest of the suspects also have their day in court soon”. Major General Kadwa said.
