Alleged Sassa fraudsters appear in court

MBOMBELA - The Nelspruit Regional Court was filled to capacity on Monday as 26 accused appeared in the court.

The group comprised eight Sassa officials and 18 grant beneficiaries who are accused of defrauding the social grant agency.

The syndicate allegedly started operating in April 2016 and would approach individuals to provide their identity documents in order to register for disability grants.

The Hawks Mpumalanga spokesperson, Dineo Sekgotodi, said, "These documents were used to register them for disability grants that were approved for monthly payments which the officials withdrew before paying the recruited beneficiaries a portion, whilst keeping the rest of the money for themselves."

Sekgotodi added that the matter had been reported to the Hawks. The specialised unit determined after an investigation that the recruited beneficiaries were not disabled and were pocketing the money.

Once the investigation was finalised, the accused were summoned to appear. The court filled up as the accused, aged between 31 and 54, took their places. Three of the accused were not present due to the timing of the summonses.

"No warrants of arrest have been issued for the absentee accused, but they will be subpoenaed to appear in the court to face individual counts of fraud and theft," she said.

The accused were advised to seek legal counsel and the matter was postponed to September 4 to ensure that all have access to legal representation.

In a separate arrest relating to theft from Sassa, Matholeni Sydwell Masilela (40), Brian Mfundo Masina (28) and Moses Khumalo appeared in the Nelspruit Magistrate's Court on Monday.

The three face charges of allegedly conspiring to embezzle funds from Sassa by hacking into its system. The case was postponed to Friday when they will be submitting a formal bail application. They will remain in custody until then.