The South African Social Security Agency is a recognized organization in South Africa offering millions of South African rands to needy individuals if they are eligible in order to help them financially. This step of delivering social grants to financially unstable individuals is a great initiative taken by the South African government to eradicate poverty and help unemployed people in the country.
In order to get the grant, you have to first apply for the grant and you will receive the grant only if you are eligible. Recently the organization came to know that there is this business woman who defrauded SASSA and was accused of receiving R 123,000 grant money in the form of an old age grant.
According to the organization and our resources, we got to know that the woman was not eligible but she has received the grant payment between 2017 to 2022. According to the investigations, the woman belongs to Gauteng and is a businesswoman who is 67 years old.
Her name is Sarathamoney Devi Sigamoney and she is the sole director of a company that was awarded tenders of approximately R 88 million. The tenders were awarded by South African police service in order to supply the office furniture between the years of 2017 and 2022. She is convicted of theft and fraud and has also been found guilty of perjury. The woman was convicted in Pretoria North regional Court recently on Wednesday!
She is listed as the director of KJP Traders PTY along with her son, Matthew Pillay.
According to the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption, IDAC in South Africa, Sigamoney received SASSA while being a director of a company. The Investigating Directorate Against Corruption spokesperson, Henry Mamothame, said that the tender the company of Sigamoney received was worth millions of rands.
“The order stipulates that an amount of R138,593, together with interest at a prescribed rate of 11.25% per annum, calculated from the date of this order to the date of payment, be paid back to Sassa,”
“Furthermore, the company is estimated to have cashed in approximately R88 million from the SAPS contracts, to which the last payment was in 2022.”
Women Applied For Old Age Grant!
According to the spokesperson, the 67-year-old woman applied for an old age grant on 13th April 2017 with a supporting document in the form of an affidavit where she stated that she has not worked in the last 20 years. On the very next day, on 18th April 2017, Sigamoney received a letter of approval of her grant.
She then signed the letter as received and since then she has received an old age grant from SASSA. According to the investigations, Sigamoney has received grant money of around R 123,000 from July 2017 to July 2022.
To your surprise even after the charges were registered against her she continued to receive the grant money for a further 16 months. With further investigations, it came to notice that KJP has been in business since 2012 even before her application to SASSA was made in 2017.
The matter has not yet been closed, instead, it is postponed to the first of October. This is because AFU will apply for a Forfeiture order. AFU stands for Asset Forfeiture Unit. This is done so that the order could be made to get back the state money from the women.
Well after her conviction, the sentence is set on the 14th of January, next year in 2025!
SASSA should take strong measures to check for frauds and scammers. The agency should definitely consider reconsidering the methods they use for checking the eligibility of the SASSA grants’ applicant.
This should be made sure to assure the grants are disbursed to the needy people. Moreover in order to minimize the fraudulent activities, the organization should take significant steps and should take preventive measures to deliver the payments in the right hand. This is important to make sure the state is providing assistance for the needs of poor people and not for fraudsters.