South African soldiers stationed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to help maintain the fragile peace in the eastern part of the country are now being plagued by a renewed wave of fraudulent deductions from their salaries.
Some examples of deductions presented to companies like Sanlam have been labelled as fraud by the company’s investigators. To date, however, the military has not provided any explanation as to how the soldiers’ personal details were leaked.
Moreover, a new company has recently joined in the scam. The soldiers contacted by City Press’ sister publication Rapport stated that, just like with the previous deductions, they did not apply for any policies with Regent, which is managed by Hollard.
Some soldiers have been waiting in vain since January of this year, when the fraud was uncovered, for refunds from Avbob. Sanlam and Old Mutual immediately launched investigations into the matter and also promptly cancelled the policies. The earlier deductions have already been refunded to the soldiers.
With the new wave, there have been further deductions by Sanlam. According to Feroza Joosub from Sanlam’s marketing department, these were immediately stopped and refunded. Sanlam’s investigation could not identify anyone in the military involved in the fraud.
The current group of 700 soldiers was deployed in December as part of the United Nations intervention brigade in the eastern DRC. Most members of the group are from the 14th South African Infantry Battalion in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, while the rest come from various units nationwide.
Before the group left for the DRC, their administration was handled as usual at the military’s mobilisation centre at De Brug in Bloemfontein. The final list of those going to the DRC was also compiled there. All personal information, medical details, wills, and contact details of family members or next of kin are updated before they depart.
It is suspected that this list was leaked in some way and has since been used to write policies in some of the names. The beneficiaries, however, are strangers, and should the soldiers in the DRC perish, these strangers would receive the payouts.
According to informed sources in the military, checks are being made at De Brug to ensure all soldiers’ details are correct and that they have the approved preferred insurance for death, injuries, and funerals on record. The military negotiates these policies as part of a package exclusively for soldiers.
The fraudulent policies came into effect after the soldiers were already in the DRC and were deducted in addition to the approved ones. According to the soldiers, they had no need for additional insurance, especially since the combined deductions amounted to R2 500 per month.
The deductions came to light after their families, who have to live off their salaries in their absence, suddenly noticed significantly less money in the accounts. The soldiers also do not have access to their monthly pay slips and only became aware of the fraud a few months later.
According to sources in the military, insurance brokers had free access to the mobilisation centre at De Brug in December. In the past, only approved and accredited brokers were allowed for security reasons.
It is suspected that during this process, copies of the deployment lists, which contain the soldiers’ ID numbers, birth dates and full names, were leaked.
Despite promises, the military has still not provided any feedback to either the soldiers or the publication on whether an investigation is being conducted. There are fears that the same pattern could be repeated with any future rotations of soldiers.
Sanlam previously stated that disciplinary action has already been taken against the involved advisors who wrote the policies.
According to Zenzile Hlongwane, spokesperson for Hollard, they only recently became aware of the deductions for Regent policies. A forensic team is already working with the involved brokers to resolve the issue.
Based on the preliminary policy information presented to them by the publication, they have already determined that the soldiers did not sign up for the policies. These policies have been cancelled, and deductions will be refunded.
We are committed to doing everything possible to prevent such incidents.
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