E Cape fraudster victims still waiting to be repaid
● Hundreds of Eastern Cape residents who were cheated by convicted fraudster Kwazi Mpumlwana are still hoping to get their money back, although the authorities have traced only a fraction of the more than R110m involved.
Mpumlwana went by the name DJ Kwazee during his scamming spree from 2007 to 2013, when he persuaded about 1,700 people to invest in a company he said was listed on the JSE.
The Asset Forfeiture Unit says it has recovered R13.3m of the total but victims say they have yet to get any of their money back.
NPA spokesperson Luxolo Tyali said the assets that had been recovered would be distributed to the victims.
“We will have to check if there was any money that was distributed to these individual claimants.”
Tyali said a number of expensive cars had been attached and cash in Mpumlwana’ s bank accounts frozen.
In 2014, Mpumlwana was sentenced to 15 years in jail with half suspended. He was released on parole in August.
He has posted Bible verses and photographs on social media. Some pictures show him surrounded by R200 notes.
In January, when he was still in jail, he posted on Facebook: “I can forgive a person who steals millions from me with ease. But, I can’t handle a liar with the same grace.”
Correctional services spokesperson Logan Maistry said people should have reported these posts if it appeared Mpumlwana had access to Facebook in jail.
Most of his victims were government employees lured by the promise of interest between 9% and 13%.
Mncekeleli Luzipo, a former teacher, lost R1m. He said he’d been told by colleagues of a “great opportunity” and invested his pension. In the first four months he received R15,000 a month on his first R500,000 investment. “I put in another R500,000.”
Today he ekes out a living in his village, Nqamakwe. “I am selling some livestock so I can have something to eat. When he was arrested we had hope that we would get our money, but nothing.”
Florence Mabentsela invested R800,000. Today she has nothing left. Her life cover and funeral policies have lapsed and she struggles to make ends meet in Butterworth.
“I have nothing, literally. I would appreciate it if I can get back any of the R800,000 I invested,” she said.
Fezekile Mapisa, who lost R360,000, called on the banks to help. “We need to know where the money went. When this person was arrested, what was in the bank and who withdrew that money?” said Mapisa.
The Rev Arthur Gcali of the Nqamakwe Butterworth Uphill Association, himself a victim, said “the Hawks should know where the money went”.
Mpumlwana could not be reached for comment despite repeated attempts.