A former Sassa employee, who pushed through 183 fraudulent applications, has been sentenced to jail.
On Monday, Elliot Jingalisa, a former Cash Payments Services (CPS) officer, was sentenced to 15 years in prison with seven years suspended after pleading guilty at the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crimes Court.
From December 2015 to May 2016, he helped a syndicate apply for grants, for which payment of R1.2 million was paid out.
He was employed at the Philippi office for three years and in this time he created fake accounts, using fake identity documents to do payouts across the country.
Sassa official nabbed in sting operation.
He and 16 others were nabbed in a sting operation in May 2016.
After months of investigation by the Sassa’s Fraud Management and Compliance Department, the matter was handed over to the Hawks who swooped down on the alleged syndicate which included eight Sassa officials.
National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson, Eric Ntabazalila, said they are pleased with this outcome.
“The accused abused his position to facilitate 183 fraudulent social grant applications which resulted in almost R1.2m unlawful payouts, and he received approximately R91 500 gratification from the relevant bogus applicants for his fraudulent “services” rendered to the prejudice of Sassa,” he said.
“The 183 charges of fraud were taken together for the purpose of sentencing, and the accused was thus sentenced to 15 years imprisonment (of which seven years were suspended).”