Ecsponent investors share emotional journey
MBABANE – What was supposed to be a press conference to give an update on the expectations of the court proceedings, turned out to be an emotional scene for Ecsponent investors.
The Investors Relations Committee (IRC) members submitted how the last two years had been traumatic for them, in the quest to recover E340 million that was lost while invested in Ecsponent.
The Chairperson of the committee, Norman Dlamini, said 69 of their 1 138 members had lost their lives, while a great percentage were sickly, hospitalised or wheelchair-bound, owing to the stress caused by the loss of their investments.
Boniface Zwane, who is one of the persons who lost their investment in Ecsponent, emotionally revealed that death was better than what they were currently enduring as investors.
Advised
He narrated that in one instance, he was at the Manzini Regional Police Headquarters after Ecsponent members were advised to visit their nearest headquarters to give an account of their investments with Ecsponent.
He revealed that while narrating his story, a woman was engulfed by emotions to the point of collapsing, and that the atmosphere then became a gloomy one.
“The people affected directly by this are the ones who know the pain more than anyone. Death is better than going through this,” he said.
Chairperson of the Legal Subcommittee, Billie Dlamini, narrated that the monies invested with Ecsponent belonged to schoolgoing children, who relied on it to pay schools fees and other needs.
He said some of it also belonged to the elderly, some of whom invested their pension, hoping to utilise it at a later stage, and others who took their last penny with the hope to harvest the proceeds and also better their lives.
“We are going through a very difficult and painful time in our lives, so much that we can go anywhere, knock on any door to recover our investments. What hurts the most is that some of our members have lost their lives, while enduring this traumatising period,” he submitted.
IRC Deputy Chairperson Yolanda Oswin, echoed Dlamini, narrating that it had been a traumatic journey for them. She detailed that, within the scope of their capabilities as a committee, they had tried to recover the monies lost in the Ecsponent investment and without the right support, they would not achieve anything substantial.
“The investors are not interested in strategies we have to recover the money but they are interested in getting back the monies they invested,” she said.