Four women held over Sassa cards

FOUR women have been arrested in Mthatha after being found in possession of South Africa Social Security Agency (Sassa) cards.

Mthatha police spokeswoman Captain Dineo Koena said the four women, aged between 25 and 52, were arrested at about 8pm on Monday.

They allegedly had a stack of Sassa social grant cards and Easy Pay cards.

Koena said: “[The arrests took place] during Operation Festive Season, conducted by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation and Mthatha cluster members, when [officers] saw the suspects, working for Vela Cash Loans, withdrawing money from an ATM.”

She said the four could not provide officers with a satisfactory explanation as to how the cards, belonging to different account holders, came to be in their possession.

She said it appeared that the women had already withdrawn a total of R7 500 using the cards.

They are expected to appear in the Mthatha Magistrate’s Court today.

No response to questions sent to Sassa had been received at the time of going to print yesterday.

Last year, the Daily Dispatch reported that Sassa had issued a warning that the use of a Sassa card as a guarantee for a loan was in contravention of the Social Assistance Act. It was also against the National Credit Act for money lenders to enter into money-lending transactions with social grant beneficiaries.

Social development MEC Nancy Sihlwayi’s spokesman Mzukisi Solani said social grant money was meant to act as a safety net for those who were in the “clutches of vulnerability and poverty”. “Therefore, any third party who threatens such a government policy to cushion our people against poverty by extorting social grant cards is tantamount to being an enemy of the state.” —