Four South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) data capturers aged between 40 to 48 from Keiskamahoek, Graafreinet and Cradock offices will appear before the Gqeberha Specialised Commercial Crime Court on 15 October 2021, after their arrest by East London based Serious Corruption Investigation team of the Hawks for fraud on the morning of 14 October 2021.
It is alleged that during March 2019, SASSA officials were tasked with the capturing and approving of SASSA grant payments. On 22 March 2019, it was noted that a total of 1216 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.
The suspects are alleged to have also had an accomplice from Durban who 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 000-00 as the rightful beneficiaries had to be issued with vouchers to sustain during the period.
