Angelina Morongwe (45) was on 27 March 2023 sentenced to 5 years imprisonment for defrauding South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) over disability grant.
Between April 2018 and December 2020, the accused who is a member of the public, conspired with three Tzaneen based SASSA officials to recruit people from the local communities to apply for disability grant although they were not disabled.
The SASSA forensic investigators discovered the criminal activities of the syndicate group, subsequently a case of fraud was opened and referred to the Hawks’ Serious Corruption Investigation for further probe.
During the investigation, it was discovered that after recruiting members of the public, SASSA officials would successfully process the applications and the money would be paid to the beneficiaries.
Furthermore, the beneficiaries would give the first payments to the officials who would then share it with the accused.
The department has suffered a loss of R300 000-00 due to these fraudulent activities.
The accused were arrested around Tzaneen in February 2021 during a takedown operation.
Morongwe was out on bail until she pleaded guilty on 15 counts of fraud and sentenced by the Polokwane Specialised Commercial Crimes Court.
Other accused are going to stand trial in September 2023.
