RUNDU – A 49-year-old woman, Kanyanga Ngando, appeared in the Rundu Magistrate’s Court on charges of fraud yesterday, after she allegedly created fictitious birth certificates for non-existent kids so that she could claim monthly child maintenance grants.
Government spends about N$25 million a month on grants for orphans and vulnerable children.
Maintenance grants are paid to children who have lost a parent, have a parent in prison or are disabled. According to the police, Ngando allegedly faked six birth certificates for non-existent children.
The court yesterday heard that Ngando also created two death certificates, supposedly for deceased parents of the children, and used them in applying for child maintenance grants.
“The woman, after obtaining two declarations from the police, managed to get six birth certificates at the Rundu home affairs office, and then applied for the maintenance grants at the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare,” Detective Inspector Hendricks Mulele, the Head of the Commercial Crime Investigation Sub-Division in Kavango East, told New Era.
“She has been receiving payments since March 2011 up to now.”
According to Mulele the woman registered four non-existent children and she has been receiving the money on their supposed behalf.
“She registered four kids and managed to defraud the Ministry of Gender Equality and Child Welfare of N$34 800,” Mulele said.
Ngando is originally from Mayara village in the Mukwe Constituency of Kavango East and currently lives in Rundu’s Kehemu informal settlement. The case was remanded to November 24 for plea and Ngando was granted bail of N$2 000.
She appeared before Magistrate Barry Musana while Albert Titus represented the State.