SA Quantum is again at the centre of a corruption scandal. The insurance company allegedly colluded with Jacob Dikobo, the president of the Professional Educators’ Union (PEU), to defraud the union’s funeral scheme of about R60 000 intended for bereaved union members.
This comes hot on the heels of revelations that Cosatu’s pension fund coordinator, Jan Mahlangu, and Noluthando Vavi, wife of the trade union federation’s general secretary, Zwelinzima, benefited financially from SA Quantum, which provided financial product services to Cosatu members.
Tlali Tlali, the spokesperson for the police’s Priority Crime Unit, confirmed this week that Dikobo has been charged with fraud after allegations that he instructed a junior union employee to submit false funeral claims amounting to R60 000 to SA Quantum. The insurance company is contracted to administer the union’s funeral scheme.
According to the police, the employee, Thabo Rakhoo, claims that Dikobo told him to submit false claims to SA Quantum, which paid R60 000 into Rakhoo’s personal account. He claims he then passed it on to Dikobo. But this week Dikobo denied telling Rakhoo to make false claims and said that, if the money was deposited into Rakhoo’s account, he did not understand why the police had charged him.
“This is malicious. The allegations are driven by political agendas. If police were serious about the case, they could have concluded the investigation a long time ago,” he said.
“Already, I [have] made two appearances in court, but I don’t have the provisional charge sheet. They [police] say they are still investigating. There is a paper trail that the money went to [Rakhoo’s] account.” It is not clear why SA Quantum apparently made payment to Rakhoo for four claims intended for different beneficiaries.
But Josiah Moshatane, SA Quantum’s managing director, denied the company had colluded with Dikobo to defraud the union’s funeral scheme. “Our internal processes identified [the] fraudulent claims and we immediately brought this to the attention of PEU,” he said. “We also took action by instituting a criminal charge against Rakhoo.”
‘The truth about this matter should be exposed’
Mogole Mphahlele, the PEU spokesperson, said the union would investigate the allegations against Dikobo. “The truth about this matter should be exposed both from the judicial side as well as from PEU itself, hence we launched an internal investigation and also we are not interfering with the police investigation,” Mphahlele said.
He said Rakhoo, who was responsible for processing claims, left soon after the union had confronted him.
But Kevin Mtshali, a private investigator who has been investigating corruption allegations within PEU, told the Mail & Guardian Rakhoo left the union after Dikobo wrote a letter to him telling him to do so.
“He [Dikobo] wrote a letter to Rakhoo to say the union did not have the money to pay him, not that he defrauded the funeral scheme. It took PEU a long time to know who defrauded the scheme because Dikobo was reluctant to reveal Rakhoo’s name. The union opened a case only after a warrant of arrest was issued against Dikobo,” Mtshali said.
It was unlikely that SA Quantum deliberately made payments to Rakhoo’s personal account with the intention to defraud the funeral scheme, Mphahlele said. “The fraud was committed in such a way that even a careful SA Quantum employee would not notice, as the Department of Home Affairs was involved. Genuine death certificates were submitted,” said Mphahlele.
Mahlangu offered to resign from Cosatu this week after the M&G reported that SA Quantum bought him an Audi A4 valued at R349000.
Noluthando Vavi, who received a monthly fee of R60 000 to market the company’s financial products to Cosatu members, as the M&G reported, has announced her resignation from SA Quantum.
Cosatu said it will investigate whether SA Quantum’s gift to Mahlangu amounted to a bribe, but it argued there was no conflict of interest in the company’s payments to Noluthando Vavi.
“Unlike Jan Mahlangu, Noluthando Vavi has no relationship with any provident fund boards,” Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said in a statement this week. “There is no way she can influence the decision of the provident fund boards in terms of where they invest their money or who should administer their provident fund.
“In light of these shocking and irrefutable revelations about SA Quantum, we support the decision of Noluthando Vavi to resign with immediate effect.
“We know that this is not any kind of admission of guilt, but a move to disassociate herself from a company which has behaved immorally and unethically and lost all credibility.”