WESTERN CAPE – Today, (Wednesday 2023-06-14) the Hawks Serious Corruption Investigation team arrested a 43 year old Nicole Chante Matthews who was the co- accused with Robert George Baatjies (62), a book keeper and Christiaan Mathews (70), a Director of NC Enterprise after they fraudulently claimed benefits of more than R346 236 from Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme TERS between March and December 2020.
Both Robert Baatjies and Christian Mathews were arrested and appeared at the Atlantis Magistrate Court for Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme (TERS) related offences in August 2022 where they were released on R1000 bail each.
Nicole Matthews was since pursued by the Hawks and was eventually arrested today ( Wednesday 2023-06-14). She also made a brief court appearance at Atlantis where she was granted R1000.00 bail and the case postponed to 20 June 2023 for joining with the other accused as well as legal representation.
It was alleged that all three accused claimed for 79 Ghost employees and unduly benefited from the claims. The bookkeeper, Robert Baatjies was allegedly paid 10% for every claim submitted and the Director only paid a certain portion of money to the Directors of the five companies and kept the rest of the money for himself.
In a similar matter that implicates Robert Baatjies, additional two suspects Roger Luke Cloete (25) and Keenan Edward Johnson (29) were arrested today by the Hawks Serious Corruption Investigation team at Atlantis. All three were alleged to have fraudulently claimed Temporary Employer-Employee Relief Scheme(TERS) funds for five companies which amounted to R148 766.45 which was in contradiction with the Memorandum of Agreement.
Mr Baatjies had made a court appearance in Atlantis Magistrate Court after his initial arrest in August 2022 and the other two co-accused had made a court appearance in Atlantis today(Wednesday 2023-06-14) and were released on R1000.00 bail each. Their case was postponed to 20 June 2023 for joining the other accused and legal representation.