NORTH WEST – Morwesi Margareth Mokone (46) and Mankwane Suzan Raleru (54) appeared in the Rustenburg Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday, 25 September 2024, facing charges of fraud, forgery and uttering.
The duo was arrested this morning by members of Rustenburg-based Serious Commercial Crime Investigation. Their arrest follows an investigation into allegations of submitting fraudulent matric certificates when they applied for advertised posts in the Department of Education in North West.
In August 2008, Raleru was hired as an Early Childhood Development Fieldworker at the Kgetleng River APO following an advertisement of a post. The accused allegedly submitted a matric certificate, which she claimed to have obtained in 1992. Investigation revealed that the accused did write matric, but never passed it. It was discovered during the investigation that the accused submitted a fraudulent matric certificate when applying for the post. As a result, the department paid the accused over R2.3 million in salaries.
In a separate incident, Mokone applied for an administration assistant position at the Kana Primary School in March 2011 and was subsequently hired. She applied for the post with a matric certificate, which she allegedly obtained in 1998. Upon conducting an investigation, it was revealed that the accused never sat for matric exams and that she had forged a matric certificate to apply for the post. Consequently, the department paid the accused over R2.2 in salaries.
The pair has been granted R10 000 bail each, and their matter was postponed to 14 November 2024 for further investigation.
North West Hawks Head, Major General Patrick Mbotho and the Director of Public Prosecutions in North West, Dr Rachel Makhari, have commended the investigation and prosecution team’s sterling work in ensuring that the accused are brought to justice.
What is Fraud? “Fraud” is any activity that relies on deception in order to achieve a gain. Fraud becomes a crime when it is a “knowing misrepresentation of the truth or concealment of a material fact to induce another to act to his or her detriment” (Black’s Law Dictionary). In other words, if you lie in order to deprive a person or organization of their money or property, you’re committing fraud.