A 51-year-old doctor has appeared in the Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court for being part of a group that allegedly defrauded the SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) of more than R25m, reports TimesLIVE. Dr Thabani Cebekhulu was granted R10,000 bail. His name was added onto a charge sheet with 13 other accused whose trial date has been set for April 2021.
The report says Cebekhulu was arrested after a warrant for his arrest had been issued nearly two years ago. It was revealed in court that Cebekhulu left KwaZulu-Natal to work at a hospital in Gauteng and later Bloemfontein, where he was arrested.
According to court documents while working in the Ngwelezane area, in northern KZN, between 2001 and 2008, Cebekhulu and his co-accused are alleged to have processed fraudulent disability grants which caused “prejudice or potential prejudice to the South African Social Security Agency in the amount of R25,953,000.”
This was done by providing medical documents motivating applications for disability grants to be approved.
Cebekhulu will be back in court on October 28 and is expected to report to his local police station, in Bloemfontein.
[link url="https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2020-09-07-medical-doctor-charged-in-r25m-sassa-disability-grant-fraud/"]Full TimesLIVE report[/link]