Post Office Employee and Accomplice Who Withdrew SASSA Funds, Arrested by Hawks for Fraud
- A post office employee and her alleged accomplice allegedly withdrew South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) grant funds
- The accused 43-year-old Thandeka Dibakwane and 42-year-old Lizzy Precious Smangele Nyathi were arrested by the Hawks
- A group of four women, including Shatale Post Office branch manager, are believed to have orchestrated the crime
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MPUMALANGA - The Hawks arrested a post office employee and her alleged accomplice for fraud on Tuesday 24 May. The pair allegedly withdrew South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) grant funds.
The accused 43-year-old Thandeka Dibakwane and 42-year-old Lizzy Precious Smangele Nyathi appeared in the Bushbuckridge Magistrate's Court on Wednesday and were granted bail R20 000 each.
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They face charges of fraud, theft, and conspiracy to commit fraud. According to the spokesperson for Hawks Captain Dineo Lucy Sekgotodi the women redistributed social grant cards by circumventing the system. They were allegedly helped by an employee of the Shatale Post Office in Mpumalanga, according to News24.
A group of four women, including Shatale Post Office branch manager, are believed to have orchestrated the crime. The manager allegedly schemed with the post office tellers who would delay issuing the original cards to the owners and give them to a runner.
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Nyathi would then visit different ATMs and withdraw money which they all shared. According to a police report issued by SAPS, they defrauded about R17 500. The case was postponed to Thursday 21 July for the arrest of the other remaining suspects.
SA outraged
Social media users are angered over the crime and call for the alleged criminals to be dealt with:
Vincent Botha said:
“Those government officials found guilty of this type of despicable crime, should not only be dismissed but forfeit their pension fund and serve a jail sentence.”
Jan Venter wrote:
“The saddest part is that these criminals have jobs and then they still have the audacity to steal from the poor. What is wrong with the people in this country is it pure greed or are they all kleptocrats that can't help their desire to steal.”
Deidre Van Rensburg posted:
“South Africa is the land of corruption. Stealing from the poor.”
Malesela Emmanuel Modipane commented:
“The Sassa corruption is very deep and will take years to eradicate they say they even hijack cars ferrying cards and use old log books to load info on those cards.”
Yamkela Nompume posted:
“No wonder our R350 is forever pending, they've stolen the money.”
Helen Harvey-Gray added:
“Is there any place where there is no fraud because this is just the norm it seems.”
Sassa website will be down over certain weekends, South Africans won’t be able to apply for R350 SRD grant
In a related matter, Briefly News also report some services offered on the SA Social Security Agency’s website will be offline for maintenance. Recipients of the R350 social relief of distress grant may have difficulty accessing the website as well.
Sassa took to Twitter to announce on Tuesday 24 May that its ICT will be running a series of systems and infrastructure maintenance. The maintenance will be done over four weekends. Beneficiaries of SRD grants may be unable to check their grant status or submit applications. The application system will have some downtime from Friday 27 May until late June.
Source: Briefly News
