Acornhoek residents taken for a ride

“This is like gambling on the slot machines, you win some and you lose some.”

These are the words of an investor who lost a R1000 on a pyramid scheme in Acornhoek, just outside of Hoedspruit.

Masesetsana Mathevula*, a resident, explained to Herald how she and a friend lost R2000 they invested in a pyramid scheme that promised them riches if they joined. On Thursday, 15May, angry investors flocked to the office of the investor in Acornhoek hoping to claim back their money following news that the managers of the scheme had fled with more than a R1m.

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Residents are left heartbroken as they had invested in the hope of doubling their money in just two months. Mathevula explained that she was promised 80% monthly interest for the next six months. With the R1000 that Mathevula invested, she had hopes of making R4800 in total at the end of the investment.

“I joined in January, by February I received my first cash payment of R800 and also in March, but in April I received information that our payment dates had been shifted. I asked people who had also joined, and that is when we realised that the scheme had gone wrong. I was later informed that a case had been opened against the investment scheme owners,” she continued.

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“I knew that this was a gamble but I had hoped for it to last longer. I feel really bad for those who had invested a lot of money trying to reap bigger profits,” she stated.

Spokesperson of the police in Acornhoek, Brig Hlathi Leonard, confirmed that a case of fraud is being investigated against the company that ran the scheme. He said that the scheme was run by a group of men from KwaZulu-Natal and that it was unregistered. He said they allegedly only took cash and did not bank any of the money.

“When they realised that they are being investigated by the police, they disappeared with about R1 million.”

* Not her real name.