Woman who ‘got Sassa grants while her firm scored R88m SAPS tenders’ to return to court in July

The case against a woman accused of defrauding the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) of more than R100,000 while a company registered to her apparently scored SAPS tenders worth millions has been postponed to July.

Sarathamoney Devi Sigamoney, 67, was back in the Pretoria North regional court on Wednesday. She is charged with contravening the Social Assistance Act, perjury, fraud and theft.

It is alleged that in April 2017, Sigamoney “applied for an old age grant with Sassa, attaching a supporting affidavit [that] stated that she has never worked for a period of 20 years”, Investigating Directorate spokesperson Henry Mamothame said.

“On April 18, Sassa provided Sigamoney with a letter of approval, which she signed for as received. She is alleged to have received grant money amounting to about R123,000 from July 2017 to July 2022. Subsequent to charges being registered against her, she continued to receive the grant for a further 16 months.”

All of this happened while Sigamoney was apparently the sole director of a company, KJP Traders, that was awarded tenders worth R88m from the SA Police Service to supply furniture. The last payment made to the company was in 2022.

Sigamoney's trial kicked off with testimony from five witnesses from SAPS and Sassa.

An SAPS colonel testified on payments made to KJP Traders and how these payments were ultimately used to buy items for her family.

“A grant administrator from Sassa testified on how he assisted the accused during her application for a grant, to which she failed to declare her directorship to KJP Traders. Another Sassa official gave evidence on how the accused initialled pages on her application in which she declared not to be a holder of shares in any companies.

“The last witness, [also] from Sassa and responsible for verification of applications, testified on the obligation the applicants have to disclose their shareholding in companies, to which the accused failed to do,” Mamothame said.

Sigamoney denied she had participated in any transactions conducted by the company since 2012, claiming the company's transactions were done by her son and daughter-in-law. 

The matter has been postponed to July 29 for cross-examination by the state.

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