Cape Town - Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu said the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has referred 219 cases involving civil servants that defrauded the R350 social relief of distress grant to the police for criminal prosecution.
Zulu revealed this when responding to parliamentary questions from DA MP Mimmy nGondwe.
Gondwe wrote to Zulu asking whether Sassa had opened criminal cases against public servants who were found to have fraudulently applied for and received the R350 grants.
She also enquired about the amount recovered from the public servants who had signed acknowledgement of debt forms with Sassa.
In her written response, Zulu said 219 cases had been referred to the South African Police Services in two tranches.
She said 198 cases emanated from the first sample of 242 cases and additional 21 cases of civil servants from salary levels 8 to 13.
“These cases were referred at various dates between May and June 2022 to the SAPS provincial liaison officials.”
“The Fusion Centre resolved that Sassa refers cases, with evidence, to the SAPS provincial liaison officials who will then register such cases at different police stations,” Zulu said.
She said of the 198 cases from the 242 sample, KwaZulu-Natal led the pack with 94 cases, followed by the Eastern Cape with 34, Mpumalanga 24, North West 21, Gauteng 10, Free State with seven and four each in Limpopo and national office.
Zulu said of the 21 sets of officials involving officials holding positions from assistant director to higher posts, six cases were reported with the SAPS national office involving senior officials, four in KwaZulu-Natal, three in North West, two each in Eastern Cape, Gauteng and Limpopo and one in Mpumalanga.
Zulu also said there was no record of acknowledgement of debt as yet, but 154 evidence files for individual civil servants had been referred to the relevant departments.
“Additional 21 files have been referred to the respective departments through Offices of the Premiers.
“These evidence files were submitted for the purposes of disciplinary actions and possible financial recovery.”
Cape Times