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SowetanLive reports that the Hawks have dismantled one of the biggest disability grant fraud and corruption syndicates to hit the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) after the arrest of officials and undeserving beneficiaries in Limpopo.
The agency was scammed of disability grants by officials colluding with beneficiaries between 2018 and 2019 in Khobo village outside Tzaneen. A Sassa official explained: “A suspended senior Sassa official, who was entrusted with payment approvals of the beneficiaries at Nkowankowa offices, colluded with his girlfriend to recruit undeserving beneficiaries. The girlfriend is running a drop-in centre and has recruited many women who worked there as part of the expanded Public Works programme.” Official identity documents of the bogus beneficiaries would be collected by the girlfriend and handed over to the official as part of the scam. “These people would be registered in the system without having any file or a letter from a medical doctor recommending that they qualify for a disability grant. We believe the agency has lost close to a million rand in this fraud not the R300,000 that people are talking about,” the official indicated. Twenty of the people who were arrested on Monday and Tuesday last week in connection with the scam have already appeared in the Tzaneen Magistrate’s Court. Their case of fraud and corruption was postponed to 24 March.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Peter Ramothwala at SowetanLive
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