Ghost foster care grant givers busted

Hundreds of people have been affected by the suspension of 35 social workers, suspected of fraud, in KwaZulu-Natal.

A 34-year-old single parent, relies on the social grant provided by the government to take care of her four sons aged 12, 9, 4 and 1.

But she has no idea how long it will take for her to receive the grant after 29 social workers from the lower Umfolozi office in Empangeni were suspended by the department of social development on Monday.

She was told she would have to wait for a social worker to visit before her application would be processed.

“I am frustrated. I was here last week to apply for a social grant for my two boys and to renew for my two older boys. They told me to bring proof that my children are legitimate, I came back this week with all my children. I have their birth certificates, school forms, clinic cards. But I have been told to wait for their call because they need to investigate further,” she said.

This mother is among hundreds of people affected by the suspension of social workers who serve three municipalities from Umhlathuze, Umfolozi and Ntambanana.

She is caught in the rift between the department and the workers at the office.

MEC for social development, Weziwe Thusi suspended 35 employees for fraud this week.

The fraud involves the processing of 1 376 ghost foster care grants, defrauding government R19 million annually.

But workers, who did not want to be named, claimed they were being punished for speaking out against the acting manager.

“Our crime was being vocal about the acting manager who is abusive towards us, we reported it to the MEC but she ignored us. We then got a protection order against the acting manager because he was emotionally and physically abusive to workers.

When the MEC arrived at work on Monday, we thought our problems were finally going to be solved but instead she turned against us. We are negotiating with the union to get a lawyer to challenge the suspension,” said one of the employees.

“There are no ghost foster care grants processed here, it is not possible that social workers can do it because the process involves many people including supervisors and the court to authorise.

“All foster care beneficiaries have to renew every two years and we were just busy with that, 900 files of legitimate children had been done, the MEC is exaggerating so that the public can say she is doing her job right,” he said.

The acting manager did not want to comment, referring questions to the department’s spokesman.

Thusi said there was massive fraudulent processing of foster care grants, having discovered that 1 376 ghost foster care grant payments were processed.

She said she had appointed a team to investigate and report back in two weeks.

Department of social development spokesman, Vukani Mbhele said the issue of the allegations into the relationship with the acting manager would also form part of the investigation.

Sunday Tribune