Pretoria family blew off R5.7million UIF fraudulent payment
Tshepang Phohole and his family blew off R5.7million Covid-19 Unemployment Insurance Fund UIF fraudulently paid into his personal account.
The 25-year-old Pretoria based warehouse packer become an instant millionaire and transferred the money to his family accounts and girlfriend.
R5.7million UIF fund which was meant for more than 1,400 workers from labour brokerage CSG Resources was fraudulently paid to Tshepang’s account.
According to Thobile Lamati, Labour department director-general the accused fraudulently opened a profile as an employer using GSG Resources’ UFI number and placed his account number.
GSG Resources was initially blocked when they accessed the system but later requested a new password and uploaded their employees neglecting the changed banking details.
Tshepang Phohole was described by his mother Meisie Mojela as a good, caring and considerate person demonstrated his qualities by sharing the money amongst family members. The R5.7 million was shared between his father, sister, brother-in-law and most importantly his girlfriend.
How Tshepang Phohole distributed the R5.7million UIF fraudulent payment
This according to court and police reports, Tshepang distributed the R5.7 million UIF payment as follows.
- R1m to his father, Godfrey Mojela;
- R980,000 to his sister, Itumeleng Masoko;
- R3m to his brother-in-law, Tebogo Masoko; and
- R2.5m to his girlfriend, Taetso Zulu.
The team continued to move the money interchangeably in an attempt described in court papers as aimed to “confuse the exact source where the funds originally came from.”
What has been spent and How?
The family spent much of the UIF treasure on café renovations and new tombstones.
Itumeleng Masoko, the sister to Tshepang Phohole who received R980, 000 the least from the payout, spent R25, 200. She approached Khutsane Tombstones to buy tombstones for her late grandmother and aunt amounting to R25, 200 and paid in full.
Itumeleng Masoko’s husband Tebogo Masoko who received the biggest amount of the payout, embarked on a Café renovation shopping spree. Tebogo made payments to his business Di-L’s Finest Cafe in Soshanguve. He spend R12, 500 on two display fridges and R11, 500 on a commercial kitchen extraction system.
Tshepang’s family made a sudden U-turn on a scheduled interview with Sundaytimes.
Hawks spokesperson Col Katlego Mogale said their probe was incomplete, and as such, no arrests had been made.