Vic Falls conman once a tout
THE man who deceived tourism operators in Victoria Falls and masqueraded as a Kaizer Chiefs official last month is in fact, Thabiso Sibanda, a former tout who used to operate by Harare Road in Bulawayo who has also convinced a number of people in Zimbabwe and South Africa that he is a football player agent.
Sibanda is now a wanted man after allegedly misrepresenting himself to a number of businesses in the resort town that he was part of the Kaizer Chiefs advance party and went on to make provisional bookings for the South African football club. He allegedly disappeared after soliciting for more than $1 000 from individuals who anticipated that he would pay them back when Kaizer Chiefs arrived. He used the pseudonym Thabiso Molefe.
Investigations carried out by this publication revealed that Sibanda has conned politicians, businesspeople and even journalists. For years he was a tout by Harare Road. One of the touts who used to work with him said he knew the moment he read the story about the Kaizer Chiefs conman that it was Sibanda because that is his modus operandi and he owes a lot of people money in Bulawayo.
“I could tell after reading the story on the Kaizer Chiefs conman that it was Thabiso, he used to work with us as a tout by Harare Road some years ago. We then saw him driving different cars, I was wondering where he is all along because he conned a lot of people of their money in Bulawayo and we have not seen him for years now. He cheated one of the guys who owns a sprinter of $400 claiming that he was organising for him to ferry a football team,’’ claimed the tout.
He has over the years claimed to have sent a number of local footballers on trial with South African clubs, one of them being Warren Dube of Bulawayo City.
In March last year, Sibanda said he had arranged for Highlanders midfielder Rahman Kutsanzira to go for trials at South African premiership side Platinum Stars. Kutsanzira was supposed to have gone with James Chivasa of Ntabazinduna. The two players never went to South Africa despite Sibanda having shown journalists air tickets purportedly belonging to the duo.
Bulawayo football officials interviewed said Sibanda was nothing but just a soccer fan with so many ambitions which has led him to misrepresent himself to people.
“The young man is just a football fan who has too much ambition, some of his dreams are just way too much, that is why he ends up conning people. He is a former bus conductor, he drives a lot of cars, he solicits for favours using people’s names’,’ said the football official.