POSING as an employee of various large corporates in Richards Bay, the man who goes by the name of ‘Bongani’ has been scamming desperate and unemployed youth out of thousands of rands by promising them employment.
Bongani who claims to work for Richards Bay Minerals (RBM), BHP Billiton or Foskor promises to secure permanent jobs as drivers for these companies provided that the victims pay a fee of R1 500 which is used towards ‘medicals’ as he alleges.
Reverend Stephan Gensicke of the Richards Bay Lutheran Church had two members of his youth congregation fall victim to Bongani’s scam.
‘Bongani was very friendly and polite. He called me to say he is a congregant of the Lutheran church in another area and he was glad at the work the church was doing for the youth. He said he worked for RBM and was in need of drivers. I immediately thought of two of the youngsters and passed his number on to them,’ said Rev Gensincke.
‘While the two gathered the money to send to him, Bongani became very aggressive over the phone, asking me why they were taking so long. The money was eventually sent and he was never to be heard of again,’ he added.
Victim
Khule Buthelezi (23) of Ntsiki Reserve was conned out of R1 000 recently.
‘Despite not having the full amount, I called Bongani out of desperation. I needed a job and had to support my family. I promised him I would pay the outstanding R500 in the coming week.’
‘When I arrived at RBM, I called Bongani. He was very rude and abrupt over the phone and said he was busy at work and I should not have come to the premises. He instructed me to deposit the money instead and I have since never heard from him again,’ said Buthelezi.
Youth of the Empangeni Baptist Church also stepped forward to confirm that they had been scammed by Bongani.
According to victims, Bongani insists that all payments are to be made through the Spar Money Market system. The person who deposits the money is required to produce a copy of their ID however; the same is not expected of the party making the withdrawal. A reference number is handed over and is then used as a password for the withdrawal which victims have sent through to Bongani.
A case has been registered by the Richards Bay Organised Crime Unit and an investigation is underway.
All victims are urged to contact Warrant Officer Musa Zikhali on 035 7808200.
This Bongani phoned me early one Saturday morning, offering my domestic worker employment as a cook and cleaner at RBM – where he claimed he was the new head of HR after all the old-time staff had been retrenched. I asked him where he found my number and he said from the Garden Club (apparently my number had been in the ZO that week in connection with the Richards Bay Garden Club). When I asked why he wasn’t using the normal RBM procedure to advertise for staff he became very rude and slammed the pone down. I enquired at RBM where they knew nothing of a Bongani and also confirmed that they would not source staff in this manner.
he calls himself Sbu now.. be careful people