MAJOR V’ DENIES E900 000 THEFT

MBABANE - Prophet Major V has denied stealing the E900 000 that was allegedly unlawful deposited into his account held with Swaziland Building Society (SBS).

He made the denial in his bail application where he further averred that he had a bona fide and valid defence to the charge he was facing. The prophet, whose real name is Vusumuzi Brother Dlamini, is facing a charge of theft, which he allegedly committed on February 3, 2022. The man of the cloth was arrested by members of the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) while at his place of abode in Matsapha yesterday morning. Dlamini is the second person to be arrested in connection with the theft of the money at the bank. First to be arrested was Ndumiso Khumalo, who is the bank’s Assistant System Administrator. Khumalo is alleged to have facilitated the allegedly fraudulent transaction. He is currently on suspension and is out on bail. It is alleged that the prophet, being a holder of  an SBS Account No.52000362621, unlawfully and acting in furtherance of a common purpose, stole money amounting to E900 000.

According to the charge sheet, the money was in lawful possession of Melusi Dalton Malinga of SBS. Dlamini made his first appearance at the Mbabane Magistrates Court before Acting Principal Magistrate Sifiso Vilakati, who remanded him in custody until March 25, 2022 pending his committal to the High Court.

Permission

During his appearance, the prophet complained about his pictures being taken without permission sought from him. He told this journalist that ncono ngoba sengikubonile, nawe kutakuvelela (fortunately I have seen you, this will happen to you too). When he left the court premises after he was remanded, some people who were seated outside were overhead calling his name in jubilation, saying, Major V! ‘Major V’s arrest comes hardly a week after he withdrew his court papers in the matter where he had been taken to court by the bank over the same money. When the money was ‘mysteriously’ deposited into his account, the bank rushed to the High Court where it obtained an interim order to freeze part of the money that was left in his account.

Dlamini, who is represented by Ntobeko Piliso, was vigorously opposing the application but later changed his mind and withdrew his opposing papers. It was reported that when the prophet was first asked about the source of the money, he allegedly told bank officials that it had been deposited by his wife.  He later changed the story to say it had been deposited by a drug dealer he did not know. In her papers, the Managing Director (MD) of the bank, Mbali Sibanyoni, told the court that the prophet dismally failed to produce any evidence which demonstrated that the money belonged to him.

“The sum of E900 000 was a product of a fraudulent act done by the bank’s employee, one Ndumiso Khumalo, who unlawfully transferred the said funds to Dlamini’s account  on February 3, 2022. Therefore, these monies having been unlawfully appropriated by Khumalo for the benefit of  Dlamini, the bank is entitled to reverse the transaction,” contended the MD argued that the sum of E900 000 which was deposited into Dlamini’s account was as a result of a criminal act done by Khumalo. She told the court that Dlamini could not seek to claim same as a gift.

Interdict

According to the MD, when the bank approached the High Court on February 18, 2022 to seek the interdict, it relied on an error suspected on its system. It was her contention that this reliance on the error at the time was justified. She narrated to the court that Dlamini had deposited E500 on February 22, 2022. However, the general ledger showed a debit of E500 and a credit of E900 500, which was unusual in the banking industry. Sibanyoni said besides the above, Dlamini’s  statement, instead of showing a credit of E500  to his benefit, it reflected a cash deposit of E900 500 (with the narration  ‘Cash Deposit Self ) when the only cash deposit which was present on that day was for E500.

She went on to submit that the bank had engaged an intellect who advised it on February 7, 2022 that there was nothing wrong with its banking application. “In light of the above, it was reasonable for the bank to suspect that the system had an error, hence it then engaged ETS Innovations to check the date,” she argued. ETS Innovations is a company based in Centurion, South Africa and it is responsible for the bank’s data base support and maintenance. The MD highlighted to the court that preliminary investigations by the intellect viewed this transaction as a systems error because of the abnormality of same.  This, according to Sibanyoni, was because as per the system records, the customer made a deposit of E500, made up of one E200 note, four E50 notes and five E20 notes.  She brought it to the attention of the court that the general ledger entries, when viewed, showed a mismatch in the sense that they showed a debit entry of E500 and a credit of E900 500.

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