SUSPENDED NEDBANK MANAGERS REVEALED

MBABANE- Revealed! The two senior Nedbank (Swaziland) Limited managers who have been placed on a precautionary suspension are Phesheya Nkambule, who is the bank’s Head of Retail, and Finance Manager Terry Kamanga.

Nkambule previously held the position of Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
The duo has been suspended following a forensic investigation by the bank where it was discovered that the institution was defrauded millions of Emalangeni.
The bank recently obtained an order to freeze the bank accounts of Sate Investments and Kwasa Woodworks (PTY) Limited.
 It is suspected the two suspended managers used the companies as a conduit to defraud the bank.

Through its acting Managing Director (MD) James Matthews, the bank has since filed a report narrating how the investigations had gone so far.
He informed the court that the irregular procurement between the bank and the first respondent (Sate Investment) appeared to have commenced sometime in August 2014 and had subsisted until December 2018.

Matthews said the assertion by the Director of Sate Investment, Sanele Nkambule, that the business relationship commenced sometime in 2016, was incorrect and designed to mislead the court.
According to Matthews, preliminary investigations had revealed that Sate Investment was implicated in a number of irregularities relating to improper payments that were made to its account.

“By way of an example, and this is not comprehensive, but intended to demonstrate to the court, one of the ways in which the fraud was being perpetuated. On or (about) October 2016, Sate Investment submitted an invoice for a sum of E97 983 being in respect of maintenance work that was to be undertaken in respect of a building formerly owned by Tibiyo TakaNgwane,” submitted Matthews.

He alleged that the first respondent (Sate Investment) misrepresented to the bank that it carried out maintenance work and therefore was entitled to be paid the sum of E97 983.

Mathews highlighted that an investigation into this payment had revealed that the work was never done and the payment was irregularly processed and approved, allegedly by the two managers, who were subject of the investigation.

He went on to state that in January 2019, and during the course of an interview, one of the suspended managers, Kamanga, confirmed that he had received, at various times, ‘loans’ and/or financial assistance from Sate Investment.

Mathews explained that the disclosure came about when Kamanga was being requested to explain deposits made to his account with other financial institutions.
“The disclosure triggered a further focal point for the investigation, in that in terms of the bank’s code of ethics, its employees are not permitted to receive gifts; loans or any kind of benefits from vendors or any other client of the bank and if they do receive such, they are obliged to declare it,” said acting MD.

Mathews said there was no record of Kamanga ever having made such declaration.
He averred that the fact that the bank’s managers were processing improper payments to Sate Investment, and in turn giving one of them ‘loans’,  gave rise to the reasonable conclusion that there was improper relationship between the two. “In the course of the investigation, it has transpired that one of the suspended managers, Phesheya Nkambule, made a number of notable payments to a certain Sanele Nkambule, for example in September 2018, for a sum of E1 800,” alleged Mathews.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: