By BAKANG MOKOTO
26 September 2024- Two suspects aged 46 and 54 respectively, briefly appeared before Rustenburg Magistrate’s Court on 25 September 2024, facing charges of fraud, forgery and uttering. Morwesi Margareth Mokone and Mankwane Suzan Raleru were arrested by the members of Rustenburg-based Serious Commercial Crime Investigation.
The Hawks spokesperson in North West, Lieutenant Colonel Tinyiko Mathebula said Mokone and Raleru’s arrests follow an investigation into allegations of submitting fraudulent matric certificates when they applied for advertised posts in the Department of Education in North West.
Mathebula said in August 2008, Raleru was hired as an Early Childhood Development Fieldworker at the Kgetleng River APO following an advertisement of a post. He said the accused allegedly submitted a matric certificate, which she claimed to have obtained in 1992.
“The 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,” said Mathebula.
He further said consequently, the department paid the accused over R2.2 million in salaries. Mathebula added that the pair had been granted R10 000 bail each, and their matter was postponed to 14 November 2024 for further investigation.
Meanwhile, the 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.
The Guardian 