Two Mpumalanga court administration clerks 55-year-old Portia Majola and 55-year-old Thokozile Sophie Nofuya have been arrested on suspicion of scamming the justice department by unlawfully claiming transport costs for witnesses.
Majola works at the Secunda Magistrate’s Court and Nofuya is employed at the Evander Magistrate’s Court.
Allegations are that last year in November the two admin clerks colluded and submitted fraudulent claims for witnesses’ transport allowance.
However, the accused’s failure to attach prosecutor certificates on the forms claiming the allowances raised suspicion.
Captain Dineo Lucy Sekgotodi said an internal investigation was carried out that involved asking the witnesses named in the claim forms if they were in court on the days mentioned.
The witnesses denied they were in court on those dates and the fraudulent claims were traced to the two accused.
A case of fraud was opened against the pair and transferred to the Hawks Serious Commercial Crime Investigation Secunda for further investigation.
Investigations revealed that the department suffered a loss of R15 000 as a result of the scam.
Majola and Nofuya were arrested on Tuesday.
The accused appeared on the same day at the Secunda Magistrate’s Court, where they were released on warning.
The case was postponed to 1 February 2022 for a Legal Aid application.
