An Eastern Cape couple who defrauded the South African Social Security Agency of R1.2 million has been sentenced to 10 and 8 years of imprisonment respectively.
Nombuso Dlamini (44) and Siyasanga Gqamane (31) were sentenced by the Mbizana Magistrates Court on Friday.
From 2006 to 2011, Dlamini was employed by SASSA as a clerk responsible for capturing social grant applications. She was in a romantic relationship with Gqamane.
The couple registered fictitious social grants and used other unsuspecting people’s identity documents to open bank accounts to which social grants payments were made.
The duo was arrested in 2011 following an investigation into the massive scale of payments of social grants without the necessary supporting documents. More than 30 bank cards were found at the couple’s home. They could not provide any plausible explanation for these cards.
The court said Dlamini had abused her position of power and used it to defraud the state.
The court has also granted a confiscation order for the forfeiture of assets belonging to the convicted fraudsters to the value of R104 000.
Two years of each of the sentences were suspended for 5 years, on condition the duo had not been previously convicted of any offence involving dishonesty.
