As authorities continue with their efforts to clamp down on romance scams, police have made a breakthrough with the arrest of a man who allegedly helped a Ghanaian national scam a former teacher from Limpopo of R1.8m. The man was arrested after being on the run for a year.
This is one of the many cases that police and the Hawks have cracked this year, as more people, especially women, were scammed of millions of rand of their pension and provident fund money.
In this latest case, Mohoto Mangwejana, 33, appeared in the Praktizeer magistrate’s court outside Burgersfort on Friday, facing charges of theft and fraud.
According to police, a former teacher met the Ghanaian national in January last year at Tubatse Crossing Mall in Burgersfort.
Eight months later, Mangwejana contacted the teacher, and they started dating.
In October 2023, the Ghanaian proposed that they should start their own business. He then told the victim that he had found two trucks needed for the business, which cost R3m.
“They went to the bank in Phalaborwa, where the victim transferred R1.8m to a certain account number. She went home and waited for the trucks to be delivered,” said Limpopo Hawks spokesperson W/O Lethunya Mmuroa.
The former teacher tried to contact her boyfriend, but his phone was switched off, and when she tried to locate him he had disappeared.
“She reported the matter to the police. A case docket of theft was opened and transferred to the Hawks Serious Commercial Crime Investigation Unit for further investigations.
“Through intensive investigations, the Hawks revealed that the money was transferred to the account of the accused person,” said Mmuroa.
Mangwejana was traced and arrested by the Hawks at North West on Thursday. The case was postponed to December 11 for bail application.
“The Hawks are still searching for the Ghanaian suspect,” said Mmuroa.
In October, a man and woman were arrested for allegedly scamming a victim of R2m in 2019.
A victim met a man, 'Allen Graig', on Facebook and they began an online relationship, communicating via WhatsApp. Once the man gained the victim's trust, he started requesting money for various reasons.
The victim only realised that she was dealing with a con artist after she had deposited R2m into different accounts. Nomfusi Princess Fortune, 33, and Zizipho Mqikela, 32, are both out on bail after appearing at Palm Ridge magistrate's court.
Fortune's Capitec account allegedly received three transactions amounting to R70,000. Mqikela's FNB account allegedly received R580,000 in seven transactions.
In March, a Nigerian national, Shanaan Brynstin Noonaan, 24, was arrested after a lengthy Hawks investigation linked his alleged criminal activities to a similar method of operation allegedly used by another Nigerian, Frank Ehimare Ebhoramen, 38, who has been in custody since September last year.
Both suspects are based in South Africa and the status of their stay in the country was subject to an ongoing probe.
Hawks spokesperson W/O Thatohatsi Mavimbela said the two suspects allegedly interacted with South African-based female victims on LinkedIn, going by the name of Howard Gibson Wayne, purportedly from Lisbon and residing in England.
“The conversations soon shifted to WhatsApp, where 'Mr Wayne' cited that he was an engineer, owned a property in Cape Town and specialised in construction and oil. The two victims who have come forth fell in love with the alleged engineer. They soon started to part with money,” Mavimbela said.
The investigation uncovered that just over R1m was defrauded from the victims.
Their case is ongoing.
TimesLIVE previously reported about two Eastern Cape women who unwittingly became involved with a dating scammer, losing their pensions to his schemes.
Lucious Charles Saba, a Tanzanian, was sentenced to 25 years' imprisonment by the Qonce (King William's Town) regional court early this year.
The retirees were swindled after the 30-year-old convinced them to cash in their pension payouts and invest in a fictitious company.
“Saba, who was in South Africa illegally, approached the two women, then aged 58 and 59 respectively, and proposed love to them on different occasions in 2017. They both got into romantic relationships with him, unbeknown to one another,” said National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Luxolo Tyali.
“He managed to convince them to withdraw their pension benefits and give them to him 'to invest'. They did so — one withdrew R1.6m and the other R900,000.
“The funds were deposited in the bank account of YNM Investments, a Durban-based company run by Saba’s acquaintances, countrymen and other foreigners from other countries.
“After the two women became suspicious of their 'investments', they tried to contact Saba, but he had vanished.”
They alerted the police, but by then the YNM Investments account had been emptied.
Saba was later arrested in Durban and the two women identified him in an identity parade.
The NPA’s Asset Forfeiture Unit got involved but could only recover an old Jaguar car valued at R200,000.
During the trial, Saba pleaded not guilty and claimed the women were mistaking him for somebody else. Prosecutor Cyril Mahamba presented evidence that corroborated the two victims' versions, and the court convicted him.
Mahamba argued that a lengthy jail term was the most appropriate as Saba was not remorseful, had committed a crime while in the country illegally and the two women would not be able to recover their life savings.
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