Two South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) employees are due to appear in court after a colleague lifted the lid on an apparent scheme to defraud the system.
The suspects, aged 45 and 70, are believed to have approached the whistleblower with a plan to register elderly social grant employees with the agency.
Spokesperson for the Directory for Priority Crime Investigation (the Hawks), Colonel Katlego Mogale, said the suspects are said to have promised that each application would be handed in accompanied with R1,000 for processing.
Mogale said the initial batch of 15 application was handed to the employee with R15,000 enticement to process the applications outside of the normal procedure.
According to the preliminary investigation, the second batch of 20 applications and R23,150 was handed on Thursday and both suspects were arrested at the Sassa offices in the Roodepoort central business district.
“Upon searching the suspects’ vehicle, an unlicensed firearm and ammunition were discovered by the team. Sassa was prejudiced R 38,150,” Mogale said.
The suspects are scheduled to appear in the Roodepoort Magistrates court on Friday, on charges of corruption, possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition.
Last year, Minister of Social Development Lindiwe Zulu, warned against corruption at the agency after 40 officials were implicated in corruption amounting to R50 million.
She said some of the cases involved collecting grants intended for dead Sassa beneficiaries, false applications for disability grants, and illegal collection of child support grants.
-IOL News
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