Woman used documents of unemployed people and was paid R72,000 Covid-19 relief funds
|Published
A 35-year-old company director is scheduled to appear before the Polokwane Magistrate’s Court on Monday to face charges of fraud.
Warrant Officer Lethunya Mmuroa, Limpopo provincial spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, also known as the Hawks said the woman was arrested by the Polokwane-based Hawks serious commercial crime investigations unit in Polokwane on Friday.
“She allegedly promised five desperate job-seekers employment at her company. She took their personal details, including identity documents and other certificates. During April 2020, she acted as a director of her company when she allegedly applied for (Covid-19) temporary employer-employee relief scheme (Ters) funds at the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) for those five job seekers indicating that they are her employees,” said Mmuroa.
The application was processed and approved.
The UIF deposited an amount of R72,494 into the womam’s company bank account.
“The suspect used claimed funds for her own benefit,” according to the Hawks.
The Specialised Investigation Unit (SIU) received a proclamation to look into the looting of Covid-19 Ters funds.
“They (SIU) investigated the matter and established that none of those people worked for the suspect, and they were not aware of such claims,” said Mmuroa.
The matter was transferred to the Hawks for further handling.
The accused woman was traced until she was arrested.
Meanwhile, provincial head of the Hawks in Limpopo, Major General Gopz Govender has welcomed the arrest of the fraud-accused woman.
In 2022, IOL reported that a husband and wife was convicted after they cheated the UIF's Covid-19 temporary employer-employee relief scheme (Covid-19 Ters) out of more than R10 million.
Moroko Moremi, aged 37, and his wife Treasure Moremi, aged 34, were found guilty of fraud by the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court. This was after the couple, who are directors of Denmeng Trading, applied for Covid-19 Ters for 553 workers, when, in fact, they employed only 22 people.
IOL