Cape Town - The Hawks have set their sights on arresting more suspects linked to an alleged fraudulent disability grant scheme which resulted in the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) losing more than R1.8 million at its Malmesbury branch.
An official based at the Malmesbury service point is alleged to have aided in defrauding Sassa and was one of 10 accused who made a brief appearance in the Malmesbury Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday, where they face fraud and corruption charges.
They were remanded in custody until February 22 for a formal bail application.
“Their names cannot be released at this stage since the operation to arrest further suspects is continuing,” said Hawks spokesperson Bonnie Nxumalo.
The accused, aged between 27 and 58, were arrested by the Hawks’ serious corruption investigation team on Monday and Tuesday.
According to Nxumalo, an ongoing investigation by the Hawks began in April 2022 into allegations of individuals who were defrauding the agency.
“It is alleged that individuals from Eastern Cape and Western Cape submitted fraudulent medical documents to apply for disability grants at Sassa offices in Malmesbury. They were allegedly assisted by one of the suspects who is neither a Sasaa nor health employee who ‘recruited’ these individuals at a fee.
The fraudulent activities were conducted with the assistance of a Sassa employee,” Nxumalo.
Sassa Western Cape spokesperson Shivani Wahab said they intended to suspend the official linked to the crime.
“The suspects will be charged with schedule 5 offences as the State considers the offences in a very serious light. A suspension letter will be issued by Sassa Regional Office to the official today, February 15, 2023.
“The fraudulent activity has an obvious negative impact in respect of both financial loss and reputational damage.
Sassa will continue improving internal controls to eradicate fraud and corruption,” she said.
Wahab said Sassa had adopted a zero-tolerance approach to combat fraud and corruption.
“A fraud-prevention strategy, aligned to the National Anti-Corruption Strategy, has been implemented by Sassa and fraud awareness campaigns are conducted regularly to increase awareness,” she said.
In Limpopo, the Hawks arrested 15 suspects aged between 28 and 58, in connection with Sassa disability grant fraud. A medical doctor is alleged to have connived with a Sassa official to enable people who were not disabled to get disability grants.
Other suspects yet to be arrested include another medical doctor.
Black Sash said while they appreciated the arrests as such incidents brought up questions about the security of the measures that Sassa had in place to safeguard against fraud and corruption.
“It is important to bear in mind that Sassa has a mandate to ensure the provision of a comprehensive social security services against vulnerability and poverty within the constitutional and legislative framework. It is crucial to consider that the most marginalised are impacted the most by corruption.
“Through our work, we see how beneficiaries are denied grants. Those for whom social grants are intended, and desperately need the grants to survive, are struggling to successfully apply and qualify for the grant because of its eligibility criteria, but then we see the juxtaposition where others receive the grant who do not qualify. Sassa must get its house in order.”
Black Sash said corruption and fraud impacted grant beneficiaries and deprived them the right to social assistance.
“Sassa reported today at the Portfolio Committee on Social Development that it has zero tolerance for fraud and corruption, and we will keep a close eye on how this process unfolds regarding their accountability,” it said.
During the virtual portfolio committee briefing, ANC MP Sthembile Hlongo said she was extremely concerned about the number of fake Sassa and SA Post Office social media pages which had more followers than the real accounts.
“The people who are impersonating as Sassa officials even respond and engage with people.
“The public is falling prey to sharing their information and submitting documents.”
Sassa grant operations manager Brenton van Vrede said they were working with all law enforcement authorities to crack down on illegal activities.
“It is unfortunate that some of our employees also get involved in these criminal activities of fraud and corruption.
“We will deal with any employee and set an example that we will not be tolerant with anyone involved in fraud and corruption activities,” he said.
Postbank’s project management officer Neo Moja said serious malicious cyber attacks also heightened to an extent they had to rope in cyber experts as “the attacks were coming from all sides”.
“In December, Postbank experienced a malicious activity on its IT network that negatively impacted ATM payments. An external cyber security team was on-boarded to assist and improve the overall IT security environment.
The IGPS system has now been migrated to a secure cloud environment which made the system more secure and stable. This became evident with the recent February 2023 payment cycle, which ran without any major incident,” said Moja.
Cape Times