WINDHOEK – The elderly woman accused of swindling government out of N$42 000 in social grants for the elderly – by falsifying her age – was denied bail when she appeared in the Eenhana Magistrate’s Court last week on Thursday.
The old woman, Faustina Simon, whom the Ohangwena police are investigating for fraud is currently being held in the Eenhana police holding cells awaiting a third court appearance on November 19, when she is expected to make another formal bail application.
The granny was arrested on October 16 for fraud, forgery and uttering. Police say the fraud and forgery date back to 2006.
Simon allegedly used two fake identification documents, one in which she claimed her date of birth as 1950, making her currently 63 years of age and the other as being born in 1945, making her 68 years old. The accused has been receiving two pension grants using the two different identity documents.
The police also accuse Simon of having forged documentation to obtain an identity document that enabled her to obtain the state pension grant four years before she turned 60 years, the legal age of receiving the grant.
The Ohangwena Police Regional Crime Investigation Coordinator, Abner Agas, yesterday confirmed Simon was still in custody at the Eenhana police holding cells after she was refused bail last Thursday awaiting her next court appearance on November 19.
Simon, known to have grandchildren, shocked a lot of people especially in her home village of Ohauwanga in the Omundaungilo constituency.
“We are shocked by the old woman’s action. We didn’t know what she was practising until the police came to us with copies of the fake birth certificates,” said one of the village chiefs at Ohauwanga village where Simon resides.
Ohangwena regional commander, Tylves Kampolo, said Simon is in possession of two birth certificates, which she used to register for the old age pension grant.
She started receiving the social grants in 2006 using the birth certificate of 1945. In 2009 she allegedly obtained another birth certificate saying she was born in 1950.
In 2010, Simon then allegedly turned 60 years and hence qualified to receive the pension grant, enabling her to cash in on the government’s pension scheme twice a month.
Villagers are now also complaining that Simon has been causing trouble in the village, and stands accused of killing a neighbour’s pregnant sow and burying the piglets. Simon was fined N$1 000 and two cattle by the traditional court. Villagers also accuse Simon of corralling a neighbour’s three donkeys in her kraal and brutalising them until they died.
By Albertina Nakale