The Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation in Germiston made a breakthrough on Thursday, 24 March when they apprehended a couple and their co-accused charged with fraud and money laundering in Benoni and Ethwathwa respectively.
It is reported that between 2017 and December 2020, the alleged fraudster, Fancola Malekana (36), former Contract Manager at the Benoni-based labour broker, Workforce, altered a former client’s employee banking details with his and transferred the monthly salaries.
Further investigation revealed that Malekana shared equal fraudulent proceeds with his co-accused, Mlungisi Sakala (36) who was employed by Workforce, National Rubber Matmin’s as a Human Resource Manager for the stated period.
Workforce conducted an internal headcount and discovered a number of employees who had since resigned but still receiving monthly payments. The company suffered a loss of approximately R2.3 million within three years on ghost employees’ salaries. The matter was brought to the Hawks for further investigation.
The investigation team further probed into the matter and discovered that more ghost employees were allegedly created and their salaries were reportedly transferred into another co-accused, a 35-year-old Charlotte Sakala’s bank account, Mlungisi’s wife.
A warrant of arrest was issued and successfully executed against the trio and was subsequently charged. During the trio’s court appearance at the Pretoria Specialised Commercial Crimes Court a day after their apprehension, the court granted them R5000-00 bail each. The case is postponed to 29 April 2022 for docket disclosure.