Cape Town - Eight of the 14 people arrested in the country’s biggest crackdown on social grant fraud have been released on bail in the Bellville Magistrate’s Court.
The fraud involved hundreds of stolen identities, fake ID books and at least R35 million.
Eight of the suspected fraud syndicate members were employed by the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa).
Six of the people, including the suspected mastermind, were arrested in the Western Cape while seven were held in the North West and one in Gauteng.
Mavis Padi and Moses Vincent Piyat from the Tlokwe Local Municipality received bail of R5 000 and Matshidiso Divine Mosupa, Tebogo Divine Letebele, Nomvuyiselo Gladys Phoyana, Nontsikelelo Nikiwen Phonyane and Anna Manna Letsoha, all of the City of Matlosana, were also released on R5 000 bail.
Nombuyiselo Sigcau, Ntsikilelo Mpehendukana and Nosipho Majola from the Western Cape did not get bail, while Keamogetswe Gabayo from Krugersdorp was granted R3 000 bail.
The Hawks, police crime intelligence, the Fraud Management and Compliance Department of Sassa and a private auditing and accounting firm arrested the 14 alleged members of the syndicate on Friday.
The alleged syndicate operated inter-provincially. More than 500 cases of ID fraud related to the fraudulent social grants were uncovered.
Hawks spokesman Robert Netshiunda said the allged syndicate was implicated to have defrauded Sassa of more than R2.3m involving more than 400 social grants.
“The alleged syndicate forms part of a on-going criminal investigation involving more than 4 776 fraudulent social grants amounting to more than R34.7m,” he said.
Eight Sassa officials and 14 Cash Paymaster Services employees are under investigation.
The Sassa officials who appeared in court were employed in the agency’s grants administration department. A woman considered to be the alleged mastermind was arrested close to Cape Town International Airport.
At the same time, a joint task team in KwaZulu-Natal conducted a search-and-seizure operation in Scottsburg where fraudulent IDs were manufactured in a “boiler room”.
“The items found were laptops, scanners, copying machines, IDs, copies of IDs, ID templates, CPS enrolment machines, printers, electronic storage devices, bank cards and Sassa cards,” Netshiunda said.