A former Eastern Cape senior educational specialist is expected to appear in the Gqeberha Magistrates’ Court for numerous allegations of fraud and money laundering.

This comes after she was summoned by the Gqeberha-based Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation team on Tuesday.

In a statement, the Hawks said: “Between January 2009 and November 2010, the suspect, who was employed by the Eastern Cape Department of Education as a senior educational specialist and the coordinator of the Early Childhood Development Learning Programme, allegedly processed various fraudulent applications accompanied and supported by false documents, which resulted in the irregular appointment of persons and payment of salaries of Grade R practitioners by the department.”

It is alleged that she induced the officials of the department to approve the appointments of the said persons as Grade R practitioners and to further approve the payment of monthly stipends in various amounts. The practitioners are reported to have been given an instruction by the suspect to withdraw the monies and hand them over to her.

The Hawks said the department, acting on the false information given by the suspect, paid a collective amount of more than R1.2 million.

“The summons were served after an intensive investigation since the complaint was lodged with the Hawks in December 2010. She is expected to make her first court appearance on 25 October 2021,” said the Hawks.

Source: South African Government News Agency