UAS investor who lost savings ‘heartbroken’
● United Africa Stokvel (UAS) investor Vimla Reddy had to depend on other alleged victims of the investment scheme for food and to fund her treatment for cancer after losing her savings.
Bryanston-based UAS, started in 2019, was marketed as a platform for ploughing investors’ money into the telecommunications industry. However, investors who spoke to the Sunday Times said payments dried up in March 2023.
The couple allegedly running UAS — Darren and Shirley Langbein — have been unreachable since late December despite the Sunday Times visiting their home, calling and sending messages through WhatsApp.
Reddy, 58, was recently forced to move from Johannesburg to her mother’s home in Pietermaritzburg. “I live every day as it comes and keep my faith in God. Somehow there will be a way forward. I have lost everything, my dignity, my savings,” she said.
She does not intend relocating: “I had no choice. I lost my home and moved to my mother’s house in Maritzburg. I lost everything in the last year.”
She was diagnosed with lupus in January last year. “I was in hospital every couple of weeks and then the leukaemia diagnosis came. I was shattered.” November was the worst.
“I suffered heart failure in November and literally died in hospital but they brought me back.”
Reddy invested R150,000 with UAS. “I was so excited about my payout that was supposed to happen in March, but then everything fell flat.”
She is one of almost 500 alleged victims who have formed a WhatsApp group.
“These people are wonderful. We support each other through this horrible ordeal. At times when I was on the ground, I survived because people from the group sent me food parcels and helped with payment for my leukaemia treatments,” she said. Her heart is broken.
“I am an accountant and I’ve always been an independent woman. Now I have to live in my mother’s house to survive. I was retrenched just before I invested my savings. I am still unemployed. I would do anything to get a job, no matter how far below my qualifications or experience.”
Darren Langbein on Wednesday forwarded a message from the Sunday Times back to the newspaper with the words: “Hi all, what to do with this? Regards, Darren.” Shortly afterwards the message was deleted.
It has since emerged that Shirley Langbein is listed as a director of nonprofit organisation Siyakunakekela (“We take care of you”).
The entity’s website says it is a “South African nonprofit organisation that reaches out to communities and lends a helping hand where the government has failed them”.
“Our aim is to effect tangible change in South Africa in the areas of health, education and humanitarian outreach. Our projects are funded largely from the public. This support helps us reach our goal of changing the lives of women and young girls in a tangible way.”
Projects include combating gender-based violence, distributing sanitary pads at schools and providing a product that converts pit toilet waste into soda ash, carbon dioxide and water.
Siyakunakekela did not respond to a request for comment on its activities.
Dustin Layne Barker registered the shelf company and sold it to the couple. “We also did their books ... and I can tell you that we saw nothing out of the ordinary,” he said.
“I also don’t see fraud at the Stokvel. I just see a business that went under. I have known the Langbeins for many years. I first did business with their parents. They are a typical German family.
“I can assure you, if they owe people money it will be repaid, no matter how long it takes,” said Barker.
Social development department spokesperson Lumka Oliphant said: “They are registered and are compliant with the NPO Act.”
Gerhard van Deventer, divisional executive of enforcement at the Financial Sector Control Authority — the regulatory body investigating allegations against UAS — said Siyakunakekela had not formed part of its initial probe.
“But thank you for the information, we will look at them now,” he added.
I live every day as it comes and keep my faith in God. Somehow there will be a way forward. I have lost everything, my dignity, my savings
UAS investor Vimla Reddy