Zimbabwean man convicted for stealing SANDF employee’s identity to commit TERS fraud

A Zimbabwean national has been sentenced to a year imprisonment after he stole the identity of a South African National Defence Force worker, to access pay-outs from the Covid-19 Temporary Employee/Employer Relief Scheme (TERS).

According to a state report, in March 2020, Admirer Sibanda stole the identity of Betwel Juwele, a member of the South African Defence Force (SANDF).

He then used this identity to apply to the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) and claim UIF-TERS during the national state of disaster.

Not long after making the applications, he received the pay-out. He received this payment up until April 2021.

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After this, Betwel Juwele applied for the TERS. This was when officials noticed the duplication in identity numbers and names.

This information was provided to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and the commenced with investigations into the case.

The SIU found that Admirer Sibanda had stolen Betwel Juwele’s identity and used it to commit fraud.

In December 2022, Sibanda was arrested by the South African police in East London, and he confessed to the crime.

Convicted

He was finally convicted and sentenced last week, on 27 February 2023, by the East London Magistrates’ Court. He was sentenced to one-year imprisonment and ordered that after serving the prison sentence he be deported to Zimbabwe.

According to reports, in 2020 the UIF had around R160 billion in its coffers for Covid-19 temporary employee relief, of which it paid R61 billion in claims.

During a media briefing in Cape Town last year, UIF Commissioner Teboho Maruping revealed that R3.4 billion in money stolen through the relief scheme has voluntarily been returned.

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Maruping said during the disbursement of the relief funds, they indicated that they would introduce the “follow the money” project to ensure that no funds were abused or misused by employers.

He said they have appointed 6 forensic auditing firms to conduct phase 2 of the “follow the money” project, which is set to start in July and expected to be concluded in 12 months.

Additional reporting by Kgomotso Phooko.