A Northern Cape doctor accused of swindling money from the Compensation Fund had admitted being involved in the scheme, a witness told the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on Monday.
A former forensic investigator at the labour department, Tshepo Wilfred Sexwale, told the court that in February 2010 Dr Ephraim Tebogo Kaeletsa confessed to fraudulently receiving funds.
Kaeletsa did so when Sexwale and another investigator, Jabu Zwane, questioned him in Pampierstad about payments he had received from the Compensation Fund.
“He said there was something he wanted to tell us. He said it was in relation with the payments he had received from the Compensation Fund. He told us that he had seen that the matter was serious and wanted to tell the truth,” said Sexwale.
Kaeletsa said the payment he received was a result of fraudulent claims.
“Dr Kaeletsa said he submitted the false claims with assistance from an employee of the fund. He then gave us the name of the official as Kabelo Senne,” Sexwale testified.
He said the doctor confessed that he not treated the patients for whom he had been paid by the Compensation Fund.
Kaeletsa allegedly told Sexwale he received the names of people to claim for from Senne.
“At that time we were at the nearest police station from Kaeletsa’s surgery, the Pampierstad police station,” Sexwale told the court.
“We had gone there to have him sign an affidavit concerning his knowledge of the people on the list we had brought to him. The people on that list were supposedly treated by Kaeletsa”
The trial briefly adjourned on Monday and would continue later in the day.
Kaeletsa, of Pampierstad Haitswater, in the Northern Cape, was arrested in August 2010 and was charged with defrauding the Compensation Fund of almost R700 000.
He is out on bail of R5 000.
The Compensation Fund is a public entity, under the department of labour whose function is provide compensation for workers who incurred injury or disease at work. – Sapa