TimesLIVE reports that in October, Thabo Abel Simbini, through his business Impossible Services (Pty) Ltd, made the devastating revelation that he had to lay off 6,647 employees because of the coronavirus.  

As a result, he claimed — and was paid — over R111m from the Covid-19 Temporary Employer/Employee Relief Scheme (Ters), which is administered by the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) to help individuals and businesses hit by Covid-19.  However, Simbini didn't terminate the services of anyone as he was Impossible Services' only employee.  The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) reported on Thursday that its Asset Forfeiture Unit (AFU) had secured a court order to freeze the company's and Simbini's bank accounts over the seemingly brazen “suspected Covid relief fraud”.  According to the NPA's Sipho Ngwema, Simbini appeared briefly in the Pretoria specialised commercial crimes court on allegations of bribery.  He also faces charges of fraud, corruption and money laundering.  Ngwema explained:  “Impossible Services was paid R111,003,088.73 into the company’s bank account based on the fraudulent claim.  Subsequent investigations revealed that the employees were not employed by Impossible Services and the company was fraudulently using people's identity documents to claim for normal UIF and Covid-19 Ters benefits without their knowledge.”  The Hawks arrested Simbini on 13 November after he was “caught red-handed bribing an official from the department of employment and labour”.

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard at TimesLIVE

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