Africa-Press – Eswatini. A stokvel treasurer has been arrested after he staged a fake robbery, claiming to have been attacked, tied up and robbed of over E48 000 members’ savings.
Bongani Tsela of Vusweni was on Monday said to have thrashed his flat, opening drawers and scattering his belongings all over the flat to make it look like the ‘robbers’ had ransacked it.
He is further alleged to have opened the bag in which he kept the money and strategically placed it on the floor to give the impression that it had been ransacked.
As part of the plan, Tsela is said to have stuffed socks in his mouth and thereafter tied his legs and hands with socks before conveniently placing himself in a position where he would be able to kick a cabinet to create enough noise to draw his neighbours’ attention.
The former security officer is, thereafter, alleged to have kicked the cabinet, making noise until the neighbours came to his rescue.
The neighbours were said to have been convinced that Tsela had been attacked and after untying him immediately called the community police who, however, were not easily convinced despite that some of his household items were found strewn outside his flat.
According to a source, there was a general feeling among the community police that something was amiss with Tsela’s story with the main concern being why the robbers would use socks to tie him up.
“Also his story did not add up on what exactly happened and making it worse was that as they questioned him, he kept groaning as if he was in pain but they did not see any injuries on his body yet he claimed to have been assaulted,” said the source.
When the community police led him out of the flat, Tsela is alleged to have screamed that the money had been stolen.
“He was then questioned what money was he talking about and that was when he revealed that he had kept stokvel money amounting to over E48 000, which had been stolen,” related the sources.
This, according to the source, further raised suspicions with the community police.
One of the people who found Tsela said they could not see where he had been assaulted as per his claims but instead they found a bush-knife on the floor in his flat.
Also raising suspicion was that his cellphone was not stolen.
Poked
Sticking to his story amid questioning by the community police, Tsela is said to have called the police to open a case of robbery, not knowing that he was jumping from the frying pan into the fire.
His narration of what happened also did not make sense to the police who poked holes in it as well as a few members of the stokvel and also arrived at the scene as they are his neighbours.
Tsela is alleged to have recorded in his statement to the police that three men armed with various weapons attacked him in his flat and tied him up before stealing the money.
The police are said to have during the investigation realised that Tsela’s story had a lot of gaps and did not seem to make sense.
Upon further questioning and probing, Tsela is alleged to have panicked and told his wife the truth and that he wanted to end his life as his lies would catch up with him.
“His wife told him not to kill himself as they had children and encouraged him to hand himself over to the police and confess,” according to the source.
That is when he allegedly owned up that there never was a robbery.
The fake robbery happened at Tsela’s rented flat at Mncitsini, where most of the stokvel members are his neighbours, an element that made his plan easier as it relied on them discovering him.
Alleged
Tsela is alleged to have taken the money and invested it elsewhere, and due to the fact that he had been retrenched from his job as a security officer, he spent the money on his family and was unable to repay it.
Realising how much trouble he was in, he allegedly came up with the plan to pretend he was robbed.
He was alleged to have taken the money from the savings at different intervals during the course of the year and when he realised that the money was gone, staged the rather not-so convincing robbery.
The stokvel consists of 26 members, who contributed E150 monthly during the course of the year.
Some of the money was loaned out in order to generate interest so that members could have better dividends at the end of the year.
Tsela has since been arrested and appeared before Magistrate Lenhle Zulu at the Mbabane Magistrate’s Court yesterday, where he is said to have confessed.
After making his confession, he then appeared before acting Senior Magistrate, Sifiso Vilakati, where he was granted bail fixed at E3 000.
His trial date was set for January 15.
Police warn stokvels
Police Information and Communications Officer, Senior Superintendent Phindile Vilakati, warned members of the public to exercise caution with their monies, especially because the festive season, which was often characterized by many reported cases of money laundering and theft, had already started.
She further warned stokvels to keep their money with banks until it was time for distribution and even then, they should involve the police so that their funds remained safe.
Stokvel defined:
In South Africa, a stokvel is an invitation-only club of 12 or more people serving as a rotating credit union or saving scheme. Members contribute fixed sums of money to a central fund on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis.
The name stokvel originates from the concept of “stock fairs”, as the rotating cattle auctions of English settlers in the Eastern Cape during the early 19th century were known.
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