DAVE, STATUS CAPITAL AND THE MISSING MILLIONS
Status Capital Building Society (SCBS) is a small office nestled in the newly built Crescent Mall situated just a stone's throw away from the Gables shopping centre in the fast growing city of Zulwini.
It's an office you can pass without notice but “hidden” in plain sight is an organisation with big problems; lost millions, board infighting, an investor turned ´enemy´ hell bent on settling scores, political intrigue and staff now fearful for their lives.
Manned by a small team, mostly women, the SCBS has been hogging headlines for all the wrong reasons in recent times. The media has written extensively about the missing Million investments involving Escponent, Status Capital and the centrality of Dave Van Niekerk. However, most reports are coloured by who you believe or influenced in the fight to recoup the lost Millions.
The SCBC staff are now mistrustful of the media as they believe most are paid to drive certain narratives and have grown almost paranoid as they feel they are fighting battles from a slew of players.
The SCBS staff believe their troubles started when money from their investors disappeared and they initiated a fight to recover it from eSwatini and South Africa. From there, they allege, trouble started.
In the intervening period, some board members have resigned, Managing Director suspended, a defamatory billboard was placed at Malagwane Hill—albeit for a short while before the Zulwini Town Council took it down— and the media has been used as pawns in a dirty game of power and influence.
Volumes of detailed affidavits have been filed at the High Court where the founding investor Dave Van Niekerk has been alleged to have acted improperly in handling depositors' fees.
The affidavits, now seen by The Bridge, reveal a sophisticated and highly complex web of money moving from various companies in what the SCBS staff call fraudulent activities. But even more interesting is the fight between SCBS with their former Managing Director, Michael Mbetse.
Mbetse was suspended from the SCBS shortly after the E140 Million fall out. In May 2023 Mbetse was put on suspension in what SCBC claimed was following concerns on his leadership style. SCBS ultimately determined that termination of services was in the best interest of the warring parties.
Subsequently, the now suspended Managing Director challenged this decision at the Industrial Court, resulting in a temporary stay of the process whilst the case was pending. In March this year Mbetse budged into the SCBS offices and demanded his job back arguing that his suspension had been lifted.
A letter purporting to reinstate Mbetse had “unilaterally and unlawfully issued by board member Almon Mbingo in breach of a duly signed board resolution as well as the Rules of the Building Society” at least according to a statement issued by the SCBS shortly thereafter. It is alleged that Mbetse forcefully entered SCBS premises armed with the said letter and accompanied by security personnel.
Dave Van Niekerk
He manhandled staff and tried to forcibly access the Society premises, equipment and in the process issuing suspensions to staff. In a subsequent statement, SCBS described Mbetse´s antics as part of a larger scheme of “ceaseless harassment” from former directors aimed at undermining ongoing legal processes and gaining access to sensitive information critical to those proceedings.
If this office drama is not enough, consider this; around last year residents of Zulwini woke up to a billboard enacted around Malagwane with the faces of the board members of SCBC and some defamatory allegations.
The billboard, now seen by Swazi Bridge, didn't last long as the Zulwini City council quickly took it down. SCBS on the other hand still stands on tenterhooks as the missing millions continue to haunt everyone and has led to a financial, legal, and political fall out on an array of players involved in the missing E140 Millions.
“It's not missing millions,” one staff member protested to the Swazi Bridge on how we have framed the issue. “Its defrauded money. Its not like we do not know where the money went. We know where it is. It was siphoned in an unlawful manner. It's a problematic narrative the whole notion of missing money when known people clearly defrauded it,” continued the SCBS staff member who refused to be named. It is such “narratives” that has made the media an untrusted player in this fight.
Speak to SCBS investors who lost their money or SCBS staff trying to recoup it and one gets a lot of uneasiness with the media. There are constant allegations that anyone who touches this issue is handled by someone in the background, pursuing a certain narrative. But how did we get here?
Somewhere the country´s regulatory institutions we let their guard down and allowed unscrupulous individuals to manipulate processes and E140 Million was stolen and the country, SCBSC staff is left to pick the pieces.
Where it all began It’s become a familiar story, particularly on the continent. A foreign ‘investor’ comes to a country, opens up an investment company offering magical returns.
Locals invest their hard earned money and for a while get those exorbitant returns and become newly found evangelists for this new “magical money pot” and soon everyone is punting the messiah status of these new investors. Funds start being ‘invested’ in foreign vehicles and one day the money is gone. Victims in that instance are left wringing their hands in the air.
The country´s authorities are left trying to recoup what they can while many are left licking their wounds and blaming themselves. Locally, especially with reference to the Ecsponent and Status Capital cases, one name keeps popping up, Dave Van Niekerk.
Van Niekerk is a former South African cop who became a multi millionaire thanks to his early investment in small holder building society like Status Capital all across the region. But his reputation in the region is not flattering especially with allegations of malpractice in almost all of the places he has operated in.
SCBS shares key figures with the notorious Ecsponent Eswatini Limited, a company through which numerous emaSwati lost significant portions of their investments totaling over E340 million. Company registration documents accessed by local media reveal a significant overlap in leadership between Ecsponent Eswatini Limited and Status Capital Building Society.
Notably, one of the founders of Ecsponent Eswatini Limited, Van Niekerk, also serves as a Director at Status Capital Building Society. Recent legal proceedings involving Status Capital and Swaziland Debt Factoring Firm have further implicated Van Niekerk.
Court records indicate that on July 1, 2020, in Ezulwini, Van Niekerk, along with Claude Scholtz, acting in their official capacities, entered into a debentures agreement with Marthinus Prinsloo, representing Swaziland Debt Factoring Firm, for an initial investment amount of E67,293,700.
But in the case of eSwatini it is SCBS that has built a formidable case against Van Niekerk. SCBS case against Van Niekerk and the Swaziland Debt Factoring Firm (SDFF) is that they were made to invest in Status Asset Management (SAM) when it was in fact owned by Van Niekerk.
This investment was intended for the financial services sector. However, the outstanding amount has now ballooned to over E82 million due to arrears. Despite repeated demands, SDFF has failed to fulfill its obligations as outlined in the agreement.
Per the terms of the agreement, SDFF was designated as the issuer, while Status Capital was the investor, with the aim of establishing a lending partnership between the two entities.
Allegations have surfaced suggesting that a portion of the over E82 million invested through SCBS was unlawfully diverted out of the country by SDFF. In response, Status Capital obtained an interim court order to restrain SDFF from conducting any transactions or transferring funds from its accounts held with First National Bank (FNB).
Notably, Van Niekerk held the position of Chief Executive Officer at MyBucks, the company in which the funds from Ecsponent were invested. Additionally, he played a pivotal role as one of the founders of Ecsponent.
Among some of the allegations is that Van Niekerk had a fiduciary duty with respect to these entities. A fiduciary duty is a high standard of care requiring a director/fiduciary to act in the best interest of a company and in good faith.
Fiduciary duties include a duty of care, duty of loyalty, avoiding conflict of interest, operating with skill and care, not making secret profit. Van Niekerk’s conduct based on evidence in the possession of Swazi Bridge obtained from a whistleblower, falls remarkably short of this standard.
Status Capital Exectuive Director Nomfundo Fakudze
Evidence in our possession shows that Van Niekerk owned 100 percent of the shares of Status Asset Management through a company called DVN Family Office Pty Ltd. This company is interestingly enough named after van Niekerk’s initials ‘DVN’. The family office name suggests it to be his alter ego family company. The director of the company is Zelda Viljoen who has been by Van Niekerk’s side for over two decades.
Viljoen also appears to have an email linked to this company titled zel***@vanniekerk.in. Zelda Viljoen and the history with Van Niekerk Information in our possession shows that Viljoen was, from 2002 to 2010, employed by Blue Financial Services where she was responsible for ‘all financial aspects of the company.’ Interestingly enough, this period matches the time in which Van Niekerk was CEO and later group chairman of Blue Financial Services.
Blue Financial Services was founded by Van Niekerk in 2001 and operated in 12 African countries (Including Eswatini) with around 220 branches before its collapse. This would mean that Van Niekerk and Viljoen have been working together since 2002. From 2010 to 2018, Viljoen’s profile suggests she was head of finance at Ecsponent Group of Companies where she was responsible for ‘all financial aspects of the companies´.
This places her right at the center of the disappearance of 340M lost by Ecsponent. Quite coincidentally, Van Niekerk’s CV--now in our possession--indicates that he was from 2010 to 2019 the executive chairman of Mybucks and Getbucks.
Mybucks received over 100 million in investments from Ecsponent funds that were later lost due to alleged financial irregularities and alleged fraudulent conduct. The relationship between Zelda Viljoen and Van Niekerk may suggest clear conflict of interest, staff at SCBS. When the two left Mybucks and Ecsponent, the two entities similar to Blue Financial Services, collapsed due to alleged fraudulent conduct and financial irregularities.
The pair then re-appeared at SCBS. According to court papers filed by the SCBS in court, Van Niekerk was calling the shorts as director while Viljoen was again controlling the company’s accounts. Information in our possession shows that the pair are still working together controlling a number of companies such as Aluma Capital, SDFF, Status Asset Management, Claymore Procurement Solutions (Pty) and over thirty other companies in the Republic of South Africa.
Swaziland Debt Factoring Firm (SDFF) Pty Ltd Swazi Bridge has seen an email written on the 10th of July 2021 by Niekerk where he is drafting resolutions for SDFF and sending such email to Claude Scholtz and copying one of SDFF’s directors, Marthinus Prinsloo.
On September 1, 20 23 Mike Hodgkiss, one of the current SDFF directors, subsequently wrote an email to Van Niekerk informing the latter that they SDFF and another Company called Basira were receiving constant payment demands from SCBS’ legal & compliance officer Sanele Kunene.
In the same email, Van Niekerk is asked to provide guidance on the disinvestment plan. This email was also copied to Marthinus Prinsloo and Zelda Viljoen amongst others.