Two alleged facata scammers arrested for defrauding victims

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By Thokozani Mazibuko
Two more alleged ‘facata’ scammers have been arrested for defrauding members of the
public money amounting to over 80 000.

This has resulted in Philani Henry Mkhwanazi (26) from Mahlabatsini area and
Nomfundo Philile Hurube (29) of Mayiwane area appearing before Principal Magistrate
Florence Msibi at the Manzini Magistrates Court on Tuesday.

In total, the duo was slapped with 30 charges of fraud.

The counts that the partners in crime faces, comprises of Theft by False Pretences, the
contravention of the Prevention of Organized Crime Act of 2018, the Money Laundering

and Financing of Terrorism (Prevention) Act of 2011, and the Computer Crime and
Cybercrime Act 6 of 2022.

In most of the charges, the 'facata' scammers are said to have impersonated bank
officials and informed their unsuspecting victims that their accounts were under
cybercrime attack and therefore, they should provide them with their banking
credentials, so that they could assist them to avoid having their accounts being hacked.
However, after receiving the banking credentials, they would then use them to remotely
withdraw their victims’ monies from their bank accounts.

In other instances, the ‘facata’ scammers would con their victims after posing as the
Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS). This they did by deceiving their victims that they
were investigating ‘facata’ scams and their numbers have been hacked and were being
used by the infamous group (‘facata’ scammers) to defraud members of the public their
monies.

They would then demand their victims’ banking credentials under the pretence that they
wanted to assist them in ensuring that their numbers were no longer used by the
scammers to scam unsuspecting members of the public their monies, and in the
process, they would use same (banking credentials) to remotely withdraw their monies.
They were both remanded in custody until October 10, 2025, pending their committal to
the High Court.

Meanwhile, this takes the total number of facata scammers who have been arrested so
far to 79, with over E3.7 million stolen from Emaswati.

The infamous ‘facata’ scammers have been responsible for stealing monies from
unsuspecting members of the public amounting to millions of Emalangeni by tricking
them into punching numbers on their phones, only for money to be remotely withdrawn
from their Mobile Money (MoMo) and bank accounts.

Pensioner loses E200 000 to facata

By Thokozani Mazibuko
A 47-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly defrauding a pensioner a sum of
E200 000, which was her pension pay-out, under the pretence that he will assist her
invest the money.
This has resulted in Sithembiso Senzo Matsebula from Siteki area, who appeared
before Principal Magistrates Florence Msibi at the Manzini Magistrates Court,
being charged with Theft by False Pretences.
He committed the offence on July 16, 2025 in Manzini.
According to the charge sheet, with intent to steal, Matsebula misrepresented
himself to one Pauline Mnguni of Sidvokodvo area that she must give him money
in cash amounting to E200 000 under the pretence that she will receive passive
income every month, knowing very well that this was not true and through the
means of the said misrepresentation, he obtained and stole the sum of E200 000
from Pauline.
Matsebula was remanded into custody until September 3, 2026 pending trial.
However, he applied for bail and he was granted same fixed at E10 000, under the
normal bail conditions, which include amongst others, that he does not interfere
with State witnesses, that he does not commit a similar offence while out on bail
and that he reports to court without fail each time he was ordered to do so.
Meanwhile, Matsebula is alleged to have convinced the senior citizen to surrender
her pension money to him on grounds that she was investing the money as she
going to receive a monthly passive income thereafter.