Department of Justice senior official arrested by the Hawks
The Hawks established that the official allegedly directed claimants to her “lawyer” boyfriend to process their claims amounting to R1.7 million.
MBOMBELA – A 44-year-old senior official in the Department of Justice was arrested on Thursday following investigations of corruption and fraud at the Mpumalanga Master of the High Court.
The investigation was launched by the Serious Commercial Investigations that probed the alleged siphoning of claimants funds from the Masters office for almost two years.
According to the Hawks, it was established that the official allegedly directed claimants to her “lawyer” boyfriend to process their claims. Some never received their funds. Instead, the funds were shared between the two of them. About R1.7 million has not been received by the eight families.
“Our investigation revealed that the boyfriend is a lawyer and also that she misrepresented the State by claiming to be a South African while she’s a foreign national. The Department of Home Affairs’ Immigration Division has finalised their investigation into her status in the country. It is suspected that the R1.7 million is just a tip of the iceberg and affected members of the Mpumalanga community are urged to contact Captain Mandla Mphephethe on 071 4813295,” said the Hawks.
The boyfriend handed himself over to the investigators. The two suspects will appear at Nelspruit Magistrate Court on charges of corruption, fraud, money laundering, impersonation and violation of the Immigration Act tomorrow.
A search and seizure operation was also conducted at the boyfriend’s offices in Mbombela.
