RIDDLE:Contributions never paid to intended recipients…
By Monk Nkomo
THE African National Congress fraudulently amassed millions of rands over a period of almost three years that was intended to benefit its employees in various schemes including medical aid countrywide.
These allegations are contained in a summons served on the ANC’s top five executives in which two complainants – former ANC member, Carl Niehaus, who was recently fired – and MacDonald Mathabe, allege that the organization which is led by the five executives, committed acts of fraud, theft and corruption between the period January 2018 and August 2021. The two filed the complaint at the Johannesburg Central police station on Wednesday.
The two complainants cited the accused as Cyril Ramaphosa, President of both South Africa and the ANC, David Mabuza, Deputy President of South Africa and the ANC, Jessie Duarte, Deputy Secretary-General of the ANC, Gwede Mantashe, National Chairperson of the ANC, Paul Mashatile, Treasurer of the ANC and the ANC as an organization.
The two complainants allege that during this period, the five executives individually or in common purpose, did wrongfully unlawfully and intentionally and with intent to defraud , made misrepresentations to the complainants and or the Unemployment Insurance Fund or the Provident Fund and the Medshield Medical Fund and the South African Revenue Services.They allege that despite assurances from the accused, the deductions or contributions from staff salaries towards these schemes were never paid to the intended recipients.
The ANC deducted large sums of money from salaries of their staff members having promised them that they would receive these benefits upon termination of their employment but this never happened, the two complainants said in their summons.
The ANC, they added, continued to deduct these amounts ‘’ whereas in truth and in fact the five executives ought to have known that such representations were false and untrue.’’ The complainants alleged that the five executives had utilized the contributions deducted from their salaries for their benefit or the benefit of the ANC. This was done to the prejudice of the complainants, the UIF or Provident Fund, Medical Shield Fund and the SARS.
The two complainants also accused the five executives of having wrongfully unlawfully and intentionally stolen and appropriated money belonging to them and the UIF, or Provident Fund, Medshield Medical Aid and the SARS ‘’with the intention to deprive them permanently of ownership and possession thereof’’.
The accused also accepted gratification in order to illegally fund the ANC, a move that was in breach of trust, in violation of their legal duties and or in the performance of the constitutional and contractual obligations, the complainants alleged.
‘’The practices referred to are widespread and have taken place on a massive and nationwide scale over a substantially long period , amounting to hundreds of millions of rand, if not more,’’ both Niehaus and Mathabe claimed. They added that this action was only lodged by the two of them in order to protect others from victimization, intimidation and harassment.
The accused persons, the complainants alleged, have confessed to their conduct and ‘’ pleaded with the complainants , among others, not to refer the matter to the police’’.
Niehaus and Mathabe alleged that the victims of these alleged crimes ran into hundreds of thousands of people over years.’’ Some of the victims have since passed on and thereby created further victims in the form of their family members or dependants who have had to incur unnecessary and unanticipated hospitalization, funeral and other costs when they shockingly discovered at the time of the bereavement that their departed loved ones were not entitled to the benefits which the accused persons had falsely misrepresented to be due to them.’’
The complainants said the alleged conduct of the accused persons still continued and it would do so into the foreseeable future.