Sassa grant officials nabbed in Joburg CBD raid, others evade arrest because ‘they are on leave’

Three South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) grant administrators were arrested on Friday in a morning raid on the agency’s offices in the Johannesburg CBD.

The police and agency officials pounced on the offices in a crackdown as part of a wider operation following the arrest of four suspects, including two females and one Ethiopian national, in Soweto last month. The group was caught using fraudulent Sassa cards to withdraw money at a Shoprite store. They had 139 Sassa cards in their possession.

Sassa has not responded to The Citizen‘s request for comment on the raid. Any update will be included once received.

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Not arrested because they are on leave

Police spokesperson Mavela Masondo said that they are looking for seven officials, including the manager of the Sassa office, who were allegedly linked to the more than R260 million stolen through fake Sassa cards.

“In February we arrested four suspects. We continued our investigations and revealed they were working with some Sassa employees in this area.

“We are looking for seven of them, linked to the ones arrested in February. Today, we only found three, but we still have others we seek. Unfortunately, we are told they are on leave,” he explained.

Masondo said the police believe the trio arrested on Friday are part of a bigger syndicate.

“We are still actively searching and will continue investigating until all suspects are apprehended.

“We are talking about the four suspects arrested in February and the seven we are looking for today. In total, that makes 11. But we believe it is a much bigger syndicate,” he said.

ALSO READ: Fake websites and security weaknesses blamed for fraudulent SRD grants

Sassa fraud mastermind still on the loose

Masondo said the alleged kingpin was still at large.

“This shows that many people are involved. One of the main suspects we are still searching for is believed to be the mastermind behind the operation.”

Meanwhile, the trial of a 70-year-old woman accused of receiving more than R100 000 in monthly old age pension payouts from Sassa is expected to begin in July.

Salamina Khoza faces charges of contravening the Social Assistance Act and the Justice of Peace and Commissioners Oaths Act, fraud and theft.

She allegedly received a monthly old age pension payouts from Sassa even though her companies won contracts with the police service worth R60m between September 2014 and August 2022.

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