The Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Vryburg in North West has sentenced Ethiopian national, Etebo Lapso Wangore, to a R60 000 fine or eight months imprisonment for two counts of corruption linked to fraudulent activities targeting the South African Social Security Agency Sassa.
He also received a suspended 12-month prison sentence.
Wangore had entered the country as an asylum seeker and later established himself as a businessman operating several spaza shops.
"Investigations uncovered that he was part of a syndicate that included Sassa employees involved in the creation of fraudulent Sassa beneficiaries, commonly referred to as ghost beneficiaries, defrauding the social grant system. On 15 November 2022, Wangore approached an agent at a local Post Office and offered her R20,000 to arrange 250 Sassa cards. He further offered R1,000 per card as payment for each additional card she could supply. The official reported the matter to the police, leading to a successful entrapment operation. Wangore was arrested on 23 February 2023 and later released on bail," the NPAs Sivenathi Gunya explains.
