Almost 40k Gov Employees Who Applied for R350 Covid Grant in Hot Water
- Around 39 672 government employees have applied for the R350 Special Relief of Distress grant, according to reports
- Last year, 241 government employees received the special grant when they weren't allowed to, which amounted to around R84 350
- The DA has now called for Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu to take disciplinary action against those implicated
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The Democratic Alliance has asked Minister of Social Development Lindiwe Zulu to take action against nearly 40 000 public servants who have reportedly applied for the R350 Special Relief of Distress grant.
The DA called on the Social Security Agency of South Africa (SASSA) on Wednesday, 24 March, to ask for the assistance of the Department of Public Service and Administration to conclude investigations into the permanently employed public service employees.
The opposition party also called for the investigation into the 241 government employees who received the grant last year.
Source: Getty Images
According to BusinessTech, the DA called for both legal and disciplinary action to be taken against the public service employees. The report continued by saying that the exact number of government employees who have applied for the grant is 39 672.
IOL reported that Minister Zulu revealed that no legal steps have yet been taken to recover the R84 350 that was already paid out to the 241 public service employees last year in May. Zulu stated that investigations are ongoing.
In other SASSA related news, Briefly.co.za recently reported that Sthembiso Gcaba, 47, who was taken into custody following a sting operation conducted by the Durban Central District Task Team.
He was arrested while allegedly making withdrawals at an ATM using 70 allegedly stolen SASSA cards. When he was arrested with the cards and R7 640 in cash in his possession.
The police followed up the arrest by searching his luxury home in an uMhlanga estate. His vehicle was also seized by the authorities, a Mercedes Benz AMG GT 63 S which is valued at R3.4 million.
Before this, another SASSA employee was charged with fraud which cost the government R4 million. The figure comes from the 14 years she has worked at SASSA drawing a salary. Alina Dimakatso Nkwanyana Selepe allegedly used a fake matric certificate to land her admin job at SASSA back in 2006.
The department only picked this up due to an audit with the Department of Basic Education which discovered that her matric documents were fake.
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Source: Briefly News
