Sassa officials implicated in murder of KZN senior manager

A decade after a senior South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) manager was assassinated in northern KwaZulu-Natal‚ 10 people have been linked to a multi-million rand fraud scam that he was investigating.

Ngwelezane service office manager Thembinkosi Dlamini was probing allegations of fraud and corruption when gunmen stormed into his office and shot him dead in June 2008.

Six people were arrested and convicted in the wake of his murder - his death spawning a parallel investigation by the Hawks’ Serious Corruption Investigations task team.

This week seven others were arrested by Hawks officers‚ including five Sassa officials and a medical doctor. The seven face charges of defrauding Sassa to the tune of R25-million and three of them are implicated in the murder of Dlamini. They are expected to appear in the Empangeni Magistrate’s court on Wednesday.

KZN Social Development MEC Weziwe Thusi welcomed the arrest and court appearance of members of the alleged syndicate. “The Hawks have shown us that the arm of the law is [indeed] very long. I think Dlamini’s family will be satisfied that all those responsible for his death will finally pay for their crime‚” she said.

“These arrests will also serve as a deterrent to other officials by showing them that it doesn’t matter how long you evade accountability‚ the law will eventually catch up with you‚” Thusi added.

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