Fraudsters warned after woman jailed in jobs-for-cash scam

Mnquma municipal bosses have warned scammers who prey on desperate job seekers that the municipality will not sit by and allow its good name to be tarnished.

This comes after a 35-year-old woman was sentenced to two years’ direct imprisonment by the Butterworth magistrate’s court last week for impersonating one of its directors in a jobs-for-cash scam.

National Prosecuting Authority Eastern Cape regional spokesperson Luxolo Tyali confirmed the sentencing.

Sibahle Benya had pleaded guilty to impersonating Mnquma’s strategic management director Sindiswa Benya. They are not related.

“She [Sibahle Benya] will spend two-thirds of her jail term behind bars,” Tyali said this week.

Mnquma municipal manager Silumko Mahlasela, meanwhile, issued a stern warning, saying acts of fraud using the municipality’s name would not be tolerated.

“We will not allow anyone to use the municipality’s good name to conduct fraudulent activities or acts of forgery.

“Any impostor who tries to collect money from unsuspecting job seekers will face the full might of the law.”

The municipality reportedly received a clean audit from the auditor-general for two consecutive years between 2022 and 2024.

Municipal bosses have called on members of the public to use its anti-corruption hotline to report any acts of fraud and crime.

People can log into Mnquma’s website www.mnquma.gov.za to access the hotline.

“Our risk management office conducts awareness workshops on a wide range of topics, including fraud and corruption, ethics and financial discipline,” Mahlasela said.

“There are posters across the municipal buildings encouraging people to report activities and the whistle-blower’s identity is kept confidential.”

Municipal spokesperson Loyiso Mpalantshane confirmed that their director, Sindiswa Benya, and the convicted scammer, who share the same surname, were not related.

Their first names, however, also started with the same letter.

He said the director had first been made aware of the impostor in about 2019.

She had been alerted by one of the municipality’s employees to someone impersonating her and demanding money in exchange for jobs.

Even though the matter had been reported to the police, Sindiswa Benya did not know who was behind the scam.

But in 2022, an intern at the municipality had made inquiries about the director, saying her friend, whose name is known to the Dispatch, who worked at a supermarket, had been promised a job by someone called Sindiswa Benya who claimed to be a director in Mnquma.

The impostor had demanded R200 for municipal forms and R5,000 for the job in the municipality.

The victim had paid R1,000 into the imposter’s bank account.

“Fortunately, there was paper trail and we could actually see the transaction from the victim to this person,”  Mpalantshane said.

While Sindiswa Benya said she was relieved that the impostor had been caught, she was still upset that someone had tried to use her name to defraud desperate people.

“Unemployment is very high in SA, then you have someone play with your emotions and manipulate you like that.

“They are left emotionally distraught and now some are in debt because maybe they had to borrow money from other people,” she said.

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