By Nokunceda Magagula
A Swaziland Building Society Administration and Disbursement Officer, Sanele Vilakati, 49, has been hauled into the accused dock on charges of fraud and money laundering after he allegedly defrauded the Society over E530 000.
Vilakati appeared before Magistrate Sifiso Vilakati on Tuesday. According to Vilakati’s charge sheet, it is alleged that between January 17, 2020, and March 1, 2023, at the Swaziland Building Society Head Offices, the accused, who was entrusted with disbursing funds into loan accounts and various schemes, unlawfully diverted funds from different schemes into his account, numbered 510xxxxxxxx3, to defraud the Society.
The charge sheet further states that Vilakati made these fraudulent actions fully aware of the criminal nature of his deeds solely for his gain. For the second count of violating the Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism Act, 2011, it is further alleged in the charge sheet that during the aforesaid period, Vilakati, acting in his capacity, transferred an amount of E531,008.79 to his account, fully aware that such a transfer constituted an unlawful activity and thereby committing the offence.
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During the court proceedings, the prosecution requested that the accused be remanded into custody until his committal to the High Court on July 25, 2023. Spectacularly, the Swaziland Building Society is being hit by a fraud-related scandal for the second time in 16 months.
In February 2022, the Society was allegedly fleeced by the controversial and popular clergyman, Vusumuzi Dlamini, popularly known as Prophet Major V. The controversial prophet allegedly defrauded the Society of about E900 000 and subsequently transferred the monies to various accounts within the First National Bank(FNB) and Standard Bank.
The money was reportedly fraudulently deposited by the bank’s assistant System Administrator into the bank account of the prophet held with the bank. The Society was later compelled to approach the court demanding over E181 000 from Prophet Major V and Khumalo.
In its particulars of claim, the bank informed the court that it recovered E195 136.95 of the E376 650 that was withdrawn by the prophet, which left a balance of E181 513 unrecovered.
The clergyman is currently out on bail for charges emanating from the same transaction. At some point, the outspoken Prophet reportedly told bank officials that the amount of E900 500 was ‘mysteriously’ deposited into his account at Swaziland Building Society (SBS) by a drug dealer who was transporting drugs from Mozambique to Johannesburg.
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He was explaining to the bank officials the source of the money after it did not reflect who had deposited it. When the prophet was first asked about the source of the money, he allegedly told the bank officials that it was deposited by his wife, but later changed the tune to say it was deposited by a drug dealer he did not know. According to the bank officials, the clergyman further told them that the drug dealer asked him to open an account with the Swaziland Building Society and give him the account number, which he did.
The prophet is alleged to have further explained that the drug dealer then made the deposit. He said he was not aware of the figure to be deposited and only learnt while at an automated teller machine (ATM) that it was a lot of money. Dlamini is alleged to have continued to tell the bank officials that he was unable to contact the sender of the money as he dealt with him once and decided to wait for his call to establish the method of payment he used as well as the proof of payment.
Another explanation that was allegedly given by the man of the cloth about the source of the money, was that he worked with various people, praying for them for luck to get money, trafficking and evading criminal charges, hence they thanked him with large sums of money.
