General

MBABANE – Some members of Status Capital Building Society (SCBS) have demanded that monies that are collected should be paid directly to them.

This happened on Friday at SibaneSami Hotel during a meeting, where the members were addressed by one of the founders of SCBS, South African businessman Dave Van Niekerk, who is said to have repaid about E35 million belonging to the building society.

The members submitted that they heard that about E35 million has been recovered, but that they do not know if they will benefit anything from it.

The members also submitted that they heard that Van Niekerk has made payments directly to some of them in the form of loans.

They said their request is that any money collected should no longer be paid into the SCBS account, but directly to the members.

“My request is that since Dave has made direct payments, we must continue like that. I am saying this because at this point, we do not know if we will ever receive a cent. If there is a way, the money should be paid directly to us since it is obvious that there are problems at Status Capital currently,” one of the investors suggested.

The members said they are ready to share their account numbers and identities with the South African businessman for purpose of receiving the payments directly.

Suspended Managing Director, Michael Mbetse responded to some of the issues raised by the members.

He explained that for about two years he has not been in office following his suspension but that there were members who made constant calls to him requesting loans and that he would direct them to the businessman.

Mbetse said indeed, the businessman had a way of effecting the payments directly.

He said the businessman would request that the members submit their certificates which contained details of how much they had in the scheme.

According to Mbetse, the businessman made the payments with the hope that once things became normal, he would offset the monies.

Mbetse claimed that the businessman paid close to E20 million through direct payments.

He explained that the curator controls the money that is collected or is pumped in by the businessman.

“Dave puts the monies into the account of Status Capital because that is where they were taken out from for investment. That is how the track record looks,” he explained.

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‘I’m used as scapegoat’ - suspended MD

MBABANE – Michael Mbetse, the suspended managing director of Status Capital Building Society (SCBS) has claimed that he is being used as a scapegoat.

This he said when addressing a faction of investors who attended a private meeting which was held at the SibaneSami Hotel on Friday.

Mbetse said without going to many details, he was of the view that the investors seem not to be getting support from the regulator, the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA).

He said his view is justified by the fact that when letters are written to the FSRA, there are no responses provided.

“There is quite a lot that is happening. I am not going to get into the merits of my court case, but I can assure you that if there is a case to answer, I would expect the curator to make sure that he calls the annual general meeting (AGM) as per the mandate given to him by the FSRA. He can then hand over everything to the Board,” Mbetse said.

The MD said he expected that all issues related to court cases were to be discussed on a roundtable with the curator and then an AGM would be called.

He said, however, he was aware that the curator made effort to call the AGM but that the plan did not materialise.

Elaborating, the MD related about how he went back to work for about three days after having won his case in court after challenging his suspension.

According to Mbetse, he was informed that there was absolutely no work that he could do.

“I made it known that I am clear about the kind of work that I want to do. I requested to be provided with the management accounts and my laptop.

*Full article available in our publication.

One of the founders of Status Capital Building Society, Almon Mbingo seated with suspended Managing Director, Michael Mbetse during Friday’s meeting for investors at SibaneSami Hotel. (Pic: Ntombi Mhlongo)