Five people from Kwazulu Natal and Gauteng believed to be behind a massive social grant fraud scam in the Eastern Cape are behind bars.
The arrests of the five were made recently in a joint operation by officials from the SA Social Security Agency in the Eastern Cape, the Hawks and Butterworth police.
SASSA Eastern Cape spokesperson, Luzuko Qina, says the five alleged fraudsters were nabbed in Butterworth and found to be in the possession of the personal details of social grant beneficiaries.
It's alleged that they were preparing to alter the beneficiary account details to fraudulent accounts which would have netted them an estimated R1.3 million rand when grant payments were made.
Qina says the suspects, some of whom have other pending cases of grant fraud in East London and Johannesburg appeared in court earlier this week.
He says they were remanded in custody until their next court appearance in Butterworth on Monday.
Meanwhile, he says six Eastern Cape officials were identified as their accomplices.
Qina says the officials involved are in the process of being suspended and they will be criminally charged.
