Pixabay (stock image)
Twenty-five bank accounts belonging to different taxi co-operatives in the Eastern Cape have been frozen by the Grahamstown High Court in Makhanda.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Anelisa Ngcakani says the order was granted in favour of the Asset Forfeiture Unit on Friday.
She said says once the order was presented to the bank, it emerged that there was R22.5 million in the various bank accounts and not R14 million, as initially thought.
She said the money is in the accounts belonging to different taxi cooperatives and some of their affiliates.
The money was paid into these accounts under the special relief benefit TERS that was instituted by the Minister of Labour to assist those employees in the taxi industry who had lost income due to Covid-19.
Ngcakani said that in April 2020 during the hard lockdown, the CEO of the Eastern Cape Transport Tertiary Co-Operative Limited (ECTTC), Doctor Nokuthula Mbebe, allegedly made numerous applications to the UIF for Ters payments.
The ECTTC is an umbrella organisation ostensibly created to assist its affiliate co-operatives to comply with the law and to ensure that the local transport industry is properly regulated and functions according to legal requirements.
The ECTTC made applications on behalf of its own employees as well affiliate taxi co-operatives.
Ngcakani said there were a large number of irregularities with the first batch which included people who did not qualify for the grant.
She said the group consisted of 22 government employees, 22 who were deceased and one who was incarcerated.
A second application was then made on behalf of 66 taxi co-operatives and an amount of R220 million was paid out.
Ncgakani said when the UIF began to audit these payments, the ECTTC and its affiliate taxi co-operatives could not verify the applications with support documentation or a paper trail
The State contends that the payments, as they stand, remain as the proceeds of unlawful activities as they do not comply with the law.
This money will be forfeited to the State and the amount is expected to increase as the investigation unfolds.
In May, taxi drivers in Nelson Mandela Bay embarked on a strike over outstanding TERS payments which left thousands of commuters stranded.
In June, the Department of Labour said an amount of R25 million had been paid to Nelson Mandela Bay taxi drivers following verification by the Unemployment Insurance Fund.
