A Zimbabwean man, Admirer Sibanda, used a stolen identity belonging to a member of the South African National Defence Force to live in East London and receive a salary and Covid-19 relief payments from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF)

A Zimbabwean man, Admirer Sibanda, used a stolen identity belonging to a member of the South African National Defence Force to live in East London and receive a salary and Covid-19 relief payments from the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) for over a year.

The UIF commissioner stated that the fraud was not detected earlier because government departments, including the military, do not contribute to UIF. Sibanda received R 4,890 in Ters payments between March 2020 and April 2021.

The fraud was discovered by the UIF’s forensic auditors, and Sibanda confessed to the identity theft when arrested by the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) in December. The UIF commissioner stated that cases of Covid-19 Ters fraud continue to be discovered by the UIF’s forensic audit team.