{"id":265136,"date":"2025-07-16T09:08:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T07:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/vrystaatkroon\/?p=265136"},"modified":"2025-07-16T09:19:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T07:19:00","slug":"ghost-workers-appear-in-court-for-payroll-fraud-at-dihlabeng-municipality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/vrystaatkroon\/ghost-workers-appear-in-court-for-payroll-fraud-at-dihlabeng-municipality\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghost workers appear in court for  payroll fraud at Dihlabeng municipality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p> Two individuals accused of being ghost workers on the Dihlabeng Local Municipality payroll appeared before the Bethlehem Magistrate&#8217;s Court facing charges of fraud and corruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reitumetse Moeng (28) and Moeketsi Calvin Motloung (48),&nbsp;who appeared in court on Monday, 14 July, are accused of&nbsp;receiving R10,000 monthly salaries from the municipality without ever setting foot in the municipal offices or performing any work duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The alleged scheme, which investigators believe ran for several years, represents a textbook case of what authorities call &#8220;bogus employee&#8221; fraud. The Hawks received their first tip about suspicious names appearing on the Dihlabeng Municipality&#8217;s payroll in 2021. What followed was a four-year investigation by investigators who&nbsp;carefully&nbsp;examined&nbsp;municipal&nbsp;documents&nbsp;such as financial records to solve the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The investigation revealed that both accused allegedly received monthly salaries, despite having no record of actually reporting for work or contributing to municipal operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moeng and Motloung appeared before the Bethlehem Magistrate&#8217;s Court, where they were each granted bail of R5 000. The case has been postponed until Thursday, 14 August,\u00a0for\u00a0further investigation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two individuals accused of being ghost workers on the Dihlabeng Local Municipality payroll appeared before the Bethlehem Magistrate&#8217;s Court facing charges of fraud and corruption. 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This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.8 (Yoast SEO v27.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Two Individuals Accused of Being Ghost Workers Charged | VrystaatKroon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/novanews.co.za\/vrystaatkroon\/ghost-workers-appear-in-court-for-payroll-fraud-at-dihlabeng-municipality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ghost workers appear in court for payroll fraud at Dihlabeng municipality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Two individuals accused of being ghost workers on the Dihlabeng Local Municipality payroll appeared before the Bethlehem Magistrate&#8217;s Court facing charges of fraud and corruption. 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