Related Articles
Top Stories
Feb 13 2012 12:15
Miner Xstrata says it has brought forward maintenance on two furnaces to assist Eskom to save power.
Feb 13 2012 10:43
Although jobs were created, the economy is still 420 000 jobs short of the peak employment level before the 2009 global financial crisis, says Adcorp.
Feb 13 2012 07:58
Greek lawmakers have approved a new round of drastic austerity measures after a long day of street battles between police and protesters left dozens injured.
Cape Town - The partnership between the Special Investigation Unit and the department of social development has stopped the
payment of illegal social grants worth more than a R1bn a year,
according to the Minister, Zola Skweyiya.
Speaking at a press briefing on Tuesday, Skweyiya said that since the campaign began three years ago, 333 233 grants have been removed from the system, and future savings of R8.4bn had been generated.
"We have ensured that 21 189 irregular private beneficiaries and public servants repay the illegally obtained grants worth R114 374 000," the Minister said.
He added that the successes of this partnership had already exceeded the cost of the investment, and so the arrangement would continue. "This should send a strong message that corruption will not be tolerated, be it opportunistic or systematic," he said.
The department and the unit have started to identify trends and patterns in the type of people abusing the system, highlighting the methods used by individuals and syndicates. The grants most affected by the syndicates are the disability and child support grants. And the syndicates are believed to
be selling falsified medical certificates for a fee of between R300 and R1 000, and false clinic cards to members of the public, who use them to apply for support grants for non-existent children.
But the campaign is not all one-sided. The Minister explained that recently the office manager of Enseleni, KwaZulu-Natal, Thembinkosi Dlamini exposed more than 300 fraudulent disability grants. A few days thereafter he was shot and killed in his office.
"The audacity of these criminals who carried out this act is shocking," Skweyiya said. "We have received reports that these criminals have been apprehended and will face the full might of the law. We applaud the police for their hard work."
He said the government would not tolerate the intimidation of honest officials and whistleblowers.
The department also has a problem with the court giving the legal go-ahead for people to apply for the child support grant with alternative forms of identification, instead of identity documents and birth certificates.
"We were opposed to the court action for fear that allowing use of alternative identification would make the system vulnerable to fraud," he said. He added: "We respect the court judgment and are implementing the directive."
- I-Net Bridge