Hawks arrest two in Gqeberha over R1,1m UIF fraud
The case turns on paperwork that was supposed to protect jobless workers, and on a department audit that caught the discrepancy.
Two Eastern Cape women accused of running a R1,1 million Unemployment Insurance Fund fraud scheme were arrested and put before a court on the same day, the Hawks’ Serious Commercial Crime Investigation unit has confirmed.
Nandipha Tutani (47) and Nobuntu Mjili (50) were arrested in Gqeberha on 15 September 2026 and appeared before the Gqeberha Specialised Commercial Crimes Court that same day. Each was released on R2 000 bail, and the case was postponed to 5 October 2026 for legal representation.
The Department of Labour was left out of pocket by more than R1,1 million, according to the Hawks.
Where the scheme is alleged to have started
The alleged conduct stretches back to 2018, when Tutani worked in the Employer Services section of the Department of Labour. Her duties there included capturing, verifying and filing Employer Declaration of Employees forms, the UI-19 forms that sit on benefit files.
From that position, the two are accused of helping people who wanted to claim, by supplying the forms and the other documents a UIF application needs to get off the ground.
Hawks spokesperson Warrant Officer Ndiphiwe Mhlakuvana said the accused in some cases also helped arrange the bank accounts into which the proceeds of the claims would be paid.
The discrepancies surfaced during an audit by the department, which then handed the matter to the Hawks.
“Investigation indicated that the alleged scheme did not merely depend on isolated fraudulent applications, but involved several individuals performing different functions within what appeared to have been a coordinated modus operandi.”
That is Mhlakuvana’s description of what the investigation found. The Hawks say Tutani and Mjili recruited people to lodge UIF claims even though those people did not meet the requirements for them.
The investigation further alleges that Tutani acted in common purpose with Mjili in putting the scheme together and carrying it out.
Mhlakuvana set out the alleged mechanics: claimants recruited, applications prepared and submitted, claims captured and processed, and money paid out on the back of those claims and then withdrawn.
What the arrests mean for the fund
The UIF is money taken off the pay of people who work, to carry them when they lose the job. Every rand paid out on a claim that should never have been approved is a rand that is not there for a worker who qualifies.
That is the consequence the case turns on, and it is why the department’s own audit, rather than an outside tip-off, is where this matter began. The discrepancy was picked up internally and referred to the Hawks.
The arrests followed what the Hawks describe as intensive probing, and the two were taken into custody in Gqeberha on 15 September.
Major General Mboiki Obed Ngwenya, the provincial head of the Hawks in the Eastern Cape, credited the team that put the case together.
“We commend the enormous work done in bringing the perpetrators before court.”
What happens next
The case returns to the Gqeberha Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on 5 October 2026, when legal representation is expected to be confirmed.
Source: The Citizen, Eastern Cape Hawks nab two in R1.1m UIF fraud crackdown
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