Limpopo Agriculture officials in court for corruption
Three senior officials from the Limpopo Department of Agriculture and four farmers have been summoned to appear in court for allegedly defrauding the department.
The suspects include the Chief Director(49), the Director (46) and Assistant Director (63) .
The officials allegedly connived with the farmers to defraud the department of the funds that were set aside to assist small farmers affected by the floods in the Vhembe District.
The incident happened between 2013 and 2014.
Hawks spokesperson Matimba Maluleke says the affected farmers were allegedly required to submit their invoices to the department in order to be reimbursed.
“It is further alleged that the officials from the Department connived with the farmers to submit fictitious invoices, as a result, they were successfully processed and the money was paid out.
Furthermore, the farmers would withdraw the money and share it with the officials.
The Department's forensic investigators discovered the shenanigans in 2020 and opened a case that was later referred to the Hawks' Serious Commercial Crime Investigation. The matter has been under investigation since 2020 until 27 January 2023 when the suspects were summoned to appear in court," says Maluleke.
Maluleke says the department has suffered a loss of over R2 million due to these fraudulent activities.
The suspects are scheduled to appear before the Polokwane Specialised Commercial Crimes court on 2 March.
