Mdantsane teacher Nyanisa Mseleni, who “invested” R1.69-million with the “ancestors”, has received a return on her investment of R30000 after a court ordered one of the men who duped her to pay back the money he personally stole.
The man, Ugandan national Rashid Magezi, 28, was jailed yesterday for an effective two years for swindling Mseleni out of R30000. A further two-year term of imprisonment was suspended on condition that Magezi pay back the money he stole by the end of next month.
The East London Regional Court was told yesterday that Magezi had deposited R25000 of the necessary cash with his attorney and the total would be placed with the clerk of the court to be paid over to Mseleni. The woman liquidated her pension fund to pay large sums of money totalling R1.69-million – in cash and bank transfers – to herbalists operating from rooms in Amalinda.
Magezi was one of the scam artists who purported to be in touch with Mseleni’s ancestors.
Others were a “Prof Jameal” and a person who claimed to be “Father of Kingdoms” or “Father of all Fathers” and to whom she only spoke on the phone. Magistrate Deon Roussouw previously ruled that there was no evidence of common purpose between Magezi and the other tricksters.
The court was told how Mseleni was duped by a Ugandan fraud syndicate that if she paid an initiation fee, she would receive a huge cash gift from her ancestors. The gang allegedly extracted about R10-million in total from victims of its fraudulent schemes.
Mseleni was already suffering from personal and financial problems when she consulted herbalist “Prof Jameal” in Amalinda in September 2011.
On her second visit, “Prof Jameal” ostensibly called on Mseleni’s ancestors in a darkened room in the house. She heard the voices of other people, one of whom identified himself as her ancestor, her greatgrandfather, speaking Xhosa.
The voices promised her a gift of R3-million, but she had to bring all her money to them so that it could be blessed and returned to her with interest.
As Mseleni was sucked into the scam, the gang ratcheted up the amount of money she had to hand over to receive the gift.
In a subsequent telephone call, “Prof Jameal” told Mseleni to pay an initiation fee of R100000 before she could claim the R3-million. She paid him R70000 in instalments, borrowing from some banks to make up the money. It was the last time she had contact with him.
Later she was contacted by someone who claimed to be “Father of all Fathers” and who said he had taken over from “Prof Jameal”. He said the gift would be R5-million but the initiation fee had also increased. – rayh@dispatch.co.za
Even the ‘ancestors’ couldn’t save scammer
The man, Ugandan national Rashid Magezi, 28, was jailed yesterday for an effective two years for swindling Mseleni out of R30000. A further two-year term of imprisonment was suspended on condition that Magezi pay back the money he stole by the end of next month.
The East London Regional Court was told yesterday that Magezi had deposited R25000 of the necessary cash with his attorney and the total would be placed with the clerk of the court to be paid over to Mseleni. The woman liquidated her pension fund to pay large sums of money totalling R1.69-million – in cash and bank transfers – to herbalists operating from rooms in Amalinda.
Magezi was one of the scam artists who purported to be in touch with Mseleni’s ancestors.
Others were a “Prof Jameal” and a person who claimed to be “Father of Kingdoms” or “Father of all Fathers” and to whom she only spoke on the phone. Magistrate Deon Roussouw previously ruled that there was no evidence of common purpose between Magezi and the other tricksters.
The court was told how Mseleni was duped by a Ugandan fraud syndicate that if she paid an initiation fee, she would receive a huge cash gift from her ancestors. The gang allegedly extracted about R10-million in total from victims of its fraudulent schemes.
Mseleni was already suffering from personal and financial problems when she consulted herbalist “Prof Jameal” in Amalinda in September 2011.
On her second visit, “Prof Jameal” ostensibly called on Mseleni’s ancestors in a darkened room in the house. She heard the voices of other people, one of whom identified himself as her ancestor, her greatgrandfather, speaking Xhosa.
The voices promised her a gift of R3-million, but she had to bring all her money to them so that it could be blessed and returned to her with interest.
As Mseleni was sucked into the scam, the gang ratcheted up the amount of money she had to hand over to receive the gift.
In a subsequent telephone call, “Prof Jameal” told Mseleni to pay an initiation fee of R100000 before she could claim the R3-million. She paid him R70000 in instalments, borrowing from some banks to make up the money. It was the last time she had contact with him.
Later she was contacted by someone who claimed to be “Father of all Fathers” and who said he had taken over from “Prof Jameal”. He said the gift would be R5-million but the initiation fee had also increased. – rayh@dispatch.co.za
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