MAKHADO – A fraud case involving a bogus dumb pensioner, together with her four accomplices from Nzhelele, was postponed at the Makhado District Court on Tuesday to April 7, for further trial.

During the trial that resumed on Monday, February 21, the court heard that the ageing Mrs Sarah Thaba Tshilamba gave Ms Joyce Itani her identity book and further paid her R300 to fraudulently facilitate a disability grant on her behalf.

When testifying in court, the pensioner revealed that Itani instructed her to pretend to be dumb, while Itani would be facilitating the process of getting her the grant. It was also heard that the two went to Siloam hospital and obtained a medical certificate for the bogus dumb pensioner and then proceeded to the Makhado Municipal Health and Welfare offices to take fingerprints and submit their application.

“Both at Siloam and Makhado, Itani told the officials that she was organising a disability grant on my behalf because I am dumb and when they greeted me, I responded using sign language as I was instructed by Joyce,” Sarah told the court. As the bogus dumb pensioner was not examined at Siloam, the medical certificate in possession of the court revealed that she was suffering from tuberculosis and that as a dumb person, she was eligible to get the disability grant. The doctor and administrative clerks from Siloam Hospital, whose signatures were allegedly forged on the medical certificate, flatly denies that the signatures were theirs.

Tshilamba, who looked tired during the trial, added that she thought it was the right procedure to pretend as a dumb and for Joyce to facilitate the disability grant on her behalf. “From the onset, I saw nothing wrong, despite the fact that Joyce was not a public servant. I just thought that she was following the right procedure,” she told the court. The Welfare officials alerted the police after realising that Mrs Tshilamba’s application has much to be investigated as no affidavit and application form were submitted.

When asked by the court on how she was arrested, Tshilamba said “the police came to my homestead and asked me as to where Mr Gilbert Mariba stays, and once I directed them, they further asked me if I was no longer dumb. I then divulged all the details,” she explained.