Home | News | PASTOR LINDIWE IMPLICATED IN ‘WIN-A- CAR’ CONTROVERSY

PASTOR LINDIWE IMPLICATED IN ‘WIN-A- CAR’ CONTROVERSY

13/01/2019 05:39:00 BY WELCOME DLAMINI

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MBABANE – Is she a victim? Senate President Pastor Lindiwe Dlamini’s name features prominently in the controversial ‘Win a Car’ scheme ran by former Times SUNDAY journalist Kwazi Masuku. At E25 a ticket, the scheme was run by Kwazi Foundation, whose directors are Masuku, Sipho Nhlanhla Makhanya and Mabandla Harries Zulu.

The Times SUNDAY has ascertained that the Senate President, using her own foundation known as The Bridge Foundation, partnered with Kwazi Foundation to raise funds through the now ill-fated charity raffle draw that had a brand new E800 000 valued Ford Ranger Wildtrak grand prize.

GRANTED LICENCE

Documents seen by this publication show that it is Dlamini’s The Bridge Foundation that applied and was granted a licence by the Gaming Board to run the ‘Win A Car’ competition, which was, however, taken over by Kwazi Foundation. As it has turned out, Kwazi Foundation did not have the licence to run this competition. Further, it is The Bridge Foundation that entered into an agreement with MTN Eswatini to utilise the mobile telecommunications company’s mobile money (MoMo) platform to sell tickets to members of the public who would want to participate in the competition.

It is understood that during the signing of the agreement, MTN Eswatini was represented by Prime Minister Ambrose Mandvulo Dlamini, who was the company’s Chief Executive Officer at the time. The PM did not respond to questions that were sent through WhatsApp regarding his role in the signing of the agreement.

He read the WhatsApp message as indicated by the two blue ticks. When he was called on his mobile phone, it was answered by a male who was presumed to be part of his security detail and he said the premier was still busy, but he would inform him of this reporter’s call. Government Press Secretary Percy Simelane, meanwhile, said: “I choose not to be party to an enquiry about a deal that has nothing to do with government or the prime minister as head of government.” It is worth noting that Simelane was asked to enquire from the PM, on behalf of this publication, about the agreement between the senate president’s The Bridge Foundation and MTN Eswatini.

Other answers sought from the PM include whether the Bridge Foundation presented the car to be won before the agreement was signed. An impeccable source within MTN Eswatini said the decision to enter into the agreement was taken after the telecommunications company was told that the Ford Ranger Wildtrak vehicle had already been bought and it was a guarantee that someone was going to win it.

CONVINCED PRIZE was REAL
“There is no way MTN could have agreed had we not been convinced that the grand prize was real,” said the source. It is, however, not clear how Kwazi Foundation then assumed the leading role in the whole initiative, yet it did not have the licence for the competition and had no standing agreement with MTN Eswatini for the MoMo facility. The Senate President feels she is also a victim of Masuku’s actions.

Responding through a statement issued by senior attorney Zweli Jele from the reputable Robinson Bertram law firm, the Senate President said The Bridge Foundation is a vehicle through which she carries out her philanthropic endeavours and the institution was duly registered in accordance with the kingdom’s laws. She said in the course of her charity work, she was approached by Masuku who indicated that he could assist in raising funds for the Foundation and thereby enabling it to expand its outreach.

His ideas which appealed to the Senator included the exercising of funds through a ‘Win a Car’ competition. The foundation accepted the idea and proceeded to apply for the necessary licence with the relevant authorities. The licence was duly granted to the Bridge Foundation,” reads the statement. It further confirms that the competition was to be carried out through a mobile telephone company, “and again it is the foundation that made an approach to the mobile company and request was accepted”.

The statement continues: “Regrettably, Kwazi had an ulterior motive and misrepresented a number of facts to the senator, representatives of the mobile phone company and more fundamentally to the public at large. As a consequence of the various misrepresentations, a matter has been reported to the relevant law enforcement authorities and as such the matter is now under investigation.”
The statement adds that in deference to those processes, the Senate President would not make any further statements on this matter until such time that the investigations have been concluded.

Notwithstanding the Senate President’s statement, sources have questioned her silence upon seeing that Kwazi Foundation had taken over an initiative that was supposed to be run under the banner of her-The Bridge Foundation. Further, the sources said it should also be explained as to who MTN Eswatini remitted the money that was collected through the selling of tickets through the MoMo platform to.

“As far as we know, the money was paid to Kwazi and what is not clear is whether he used The Bridge Foundation and Kwazi Foundation to get it. However, for him to get it through The Bridge Foundation, he would have had to get the signature of the Senate President,” said one of the sources.
Another source at MTN Eswatini said at one point there was an attempt to withdraw money from the MoMo platform, but this was stopped because it was suspected that the signature of the Senate President had been forged.

The person who had come to withdraw the money is said to have been turned back after being told about the suspicious signature.
“It now remains a mystery how the money was eventually paid out to someone else other than The Bridge Foundation. Part of the ongoing investigation is to find out from MTN Eswatini as to which foundation did the papers that were used to withdraw the money belong and whose signatures are on them. Suspicion is that the person who withdrew the money got hold of stationery that belongs to The Bridge Foundation. That’s the only way MTN would have released the money if the agreement was between them and Pastor Lindiwe,” said the source.

PROBING MATTER FURTHER
When Jele, the senate president’s attorney, was asked to clarify some of these mysteries, he said he was also still probing the matter further.
“For instance, I need to know why the Gaming Board did not stop Kwazi Foundation as soon as it appeared in the press that he was running this competition because he did not have the required licence.

This is a controlled thing, so I cannot just suddenly stand up and announce that I am running a ‘win a car’ competition. Everyone who wants to do this has to apply to the Gaming Board and pay certain fees,” he said.
Jele stated that the Gaming Board could have also approached the Senate President to ask her about this Kwazi Foundation they were now seeing in the media and ask if she had changed the name of her foundation.

The lawyer stated that he could not say anything beyond this because the matter was still a subject of an investigation.
Mandla Luphondvo, MTN Eswatini’s Corporate Communications Manager, said as far as they were concerned, they did their part from start to finish and did all that was needed. “We don’t want to talk about this issue any further. Yes, it looks unfortunate but we cannot comment further.

As stated before, ours was not a partnership with Kwazi Foundation, but a payment arrangement,” he said and promised to share any new information that comes up. On the other hand, Masuku, when questions regarding the latest information were posed to him, gave a one-line answer: “I cannot comment on this.”
He did not give reasons for his failure to comment. The draw for the Ford Ranger Wildtrak was held on December 22, 2018 at the Manzini Bus Rank where the winning ticket was announced as belonging to one Senzo Gamedze. However, it is said that this Gamedze person was not present during the draw and had to be contacted through his mobile phone for the good news. People who were at the draw said when the winner was called, he said he was at Lomahasha.
The people were then told to watch Channel S Television station and the Times of Swaziland newspaper where they would see the winner being handed the car, but this never happened.

To date, Kwazi Foundation has failed to publicly identify the winner and Masuku, in a statement released last week, claimed they had signed a non-disclosure agreement with the winner.
He also said the winner was not handed the vehicle as promised, but was given compensation because they had failed to raise enough money to purchase the Ford Ranger Wildtrak.
Together with Carson Motors, they said the vehicle that was paraded to the public was a demo and had not been bought by Kwazi Foundation but still belonged to the vehicle retailer.

PROMISED TO REFUND
Masuku has since promised to refund all those that would bring proof of having bought the tickets either from their agents or through MoMo.
Agents whose numbers were published in our sister publication Swazi News as the ones to be contacted for the refunds said they had not been told anything about such.

Instead, they complained that they were now targets of insults from aggrieved people who bought the tickets.
As reported by the Swazi News yesterday, the Gaming Board has since referred the matter to the police Fraud Department.