Africa-Press – Eswatini. A man, who is a treasurer of a certain stokvel, was arrested and charged after allegedly lying to the police that he was robbed of money amounting to E48 000 belonging to the society.
A stokvel is an informal society made up of interested members who from a group with a common purpose of collecting funds, normally monthly, which are then distributed at the end of the year. Bongani Tsela (42), of Vusweni under Chief Senzangakhona, is alleged to have committed the offence at Mncitsini, where he stole money worth E48 620, while under the lawful possession of Elmond Tsabedze.
Deceive
Information gathered is that the accused person allegedly came up with some tricks on how he would purportedly deceive the stokvel members as they were expected to distribute the money they had been saving since January among themselves tomorrow. According to sources close to the matter, Tsela is believed to have used the money for his personal gain. It has been gathered from the sources that Tsela’s first trick of trying to come out innocent in the matter was making attempts to injure himself, so that it looked as if he had been attacked by certain people, who later walked away with the stokvel money.
“The accused person also went further to tie both his hands and feet. We really don’t know how he came up with such a plan. As if that was not enough, Tsela was found with socks stuffed inside his mouth, while also covered in a blanket. He then put the money bag next to the door, which was wide open,” alleged the source.
Misappropriated
The source further alleged that members of the stokvel were not aware that their treasurer allegedly misappropriated all the funds for his personal gain. According to the source, members of the stokvel were under the assumption that thieves came and took away their money a few days before it was to be distributed.
“What is painful is that members of the stokvel came to his rented flat after hearing of the alleged robbery and sympathised with him. They even took him, with the blanket in which he was covered, close to the road for ease of ferrying him to hospital. He pretended to have been assaulted during the robbery incident,” further alleged the source. It has also been gathered that the police took him to hospital for a medical check-up. After he was discharged from the hospital, the accused person is said to have reported the robbery claims at the Mbabane Police Post. The police are said to have had some suspicions why the money went missing at this time of the year. The source said they could not arrest him after reporting the matter.
Narrated
“The accused person later came and narrated how he makes use of the stokvel money for personal gain. He then handed himself over to the police,” the source further alleged. When appearing before Senior Magistrate Sifiso Vilakati yesterday, his right to legal representation was explained to him and he elected to conduct his own defence. The accused person was then remanded in custody until December 15, 2023, pending trial on January 15, 2023. The Crown did not oppose his bail application.
While mitigating on the bail application, he promised to repay the money before the trial commenced in January. He was granted bail fixed at E3 000, accompanied with conditions. The bail conditions included that he was not to commit a similar offence while out on bail, not interfere with State witnesses and should come to court whenever ordered to do so.
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