CHENGETA SCAM TALK
I blame myself for this, and I will reimburse investors
Owner and founder of Chengeta’s Boy Production (CBP) Ndinaye Chengeta is currently a man under siege. From what began as a noble gesture to help aspiring young farmers, talk is now rife that his Youth Development Farm has been a scam, with several participants coming out to narrate how the man tricked them into enriching himself through their resources.
Chengeta is being labelled a scammer and an arrogant man who has swindled many Batswana of their hard earned cash through his ‘unrealistic profit making initiatives.’ However, the enterprising farmer has come out to defend himself against the scathing attack launched against him on social media since last week.
“I am not a criminal or a scam as the public is insinuating. I never had any intentions of defrauding anyone.
“I am a man with a dream, my intentions are pure but since this was a new project it has experienced hiccups and teething problems,” a dejected Chengeta told The Midweek Sun on Tuesday.
Chengeta started the Youth Development Farm initiative at his farm (Chengeta Farms) located between Molepolole and Thebephatshwa.
He started off with the goat rearing initiative saying he wants to help many Batswana realise their farming dreams.
All that an interested Motswana needed to do was pop up P3 000 for them to be part of Chengeta’s farming initiative. The person would then be put in a WhatsApp group that needed a total of 20 participants to be deemed complete.
With each member contributing P3 000, it meant each group popped out P60 000 in total.
“From this P60 000, I gave back P30 000 to the group members and asked that they buy goats for themselves as a group. “Whatever breed they bought I was not involved, whether they decided to buy six goats or three it was not really my position to say anything.
“Still, from the remaining P30 000 I gave back P18 000 for feeding costs and again I was not involved in what they bought or wanted to feed their livestock. All I was left with was P12 000 for farm labour and other logistics,” Chengeta explained.
He expressed disappointment that some are accusing him of buying goats for them when he did not. What he is only realising now is that some people expected huge returns in a short period of time and that is not the case with farming. He partly blames himself for the mess he finds himself in now, saying he had not explored all possibilities and openly laid them out. He was driven by his big dream and sincerely believed the project would bear fruits for all.
He is however, shocked by people that are pretending to be new to the scheme as if they were not members that had made calculations and knew exactly what they were investing in.
“If we are to do our calculations in the manner that people are doing, saying I contributed P3 000 and have one goat or half a goat like they say, I wonder if they are not calculating costs like shelter, water and the general care given to their livestock.”
Moreover, the CBP boss said everything has always been out in the open and it is sad that instead of giving him constructive advice on his newly-established project, the public was quick to bash him on social media. But because his project took off on social media as he pitched the idea to Batswana on Facebook, perhaps he should have known that anything about it, whether good or bad was bound to be discussed on social media.
After realising that the goat initiative was doing well with over 600 members active, Chengeta went on to introduce poultry late last year. Still, he followed the same procedures of grouping members and using the contributions to purchase layer chickens, feeds and medicine.
Asked about his next move, Chengeta said he has taken a decision to reimburse all who had shown interest in his upcoming new initiatives of Guinea Fowls and Sheep.
“Ga ke a ngala (I am not upset) but we have decided that there is need for reconciliation. I will be putting forward a proposal to return their monies so that people can understand that no one was being scammed. That is my immediate plan,” he said.
He said the one year agreement for those doing poultry and goat rearing projects is already coming to the end and there has to be sober discussions on the way forward. “All of it has been a great lesson to me. I still believe that mine was a great project that anyone capable can also pick up and do better. I believe they would have learnt from me,” Chengeta said.