A dramatic scene was launched in the Pretoria District Court when a free state woman faced and arrested a man she was accused of cheating on her from her pension currency.
When Thabo Chele, 60, appeared in a separate fraud case, when Thabo Chele took off the dock, the woman grabbed his arm and asked for her money, declaring: “I’ve been looking for you, you always thought I’ll never find you. I want my money.”
Chele appears along with his alleged son Kingsley Chele in alleged fraud cases, accused of defrauding victims of more than R1.2 million. Both, as well as three home officials, face charges of fraud and corruption. Officials allegedly provided Chele accused of being a doctor and had a fraudulent identification card.
The woman has been searching for Thabo since April last year and traveled from Daneysville to Pretoria after learning of his court appearance. She met him and another accomplice for the last time when they convinced her to invest her pension in a scheme and promised that she would receive a return of R5 million. In December, she recognized a picture of Thabo Sowetan Initially arrested and immediately contacted investigator Colonel Simon Motolla, whose contact details are in the article.
“When I sat in the court, I saw him [Thabo] Enter and enter the witness box, by then, Motorola was not in the stadium while it was trapped in traffic. A few minutes later, I saw him walk in. When the case was postponed, I saw Thabo get off the dock and I grabbed him with my left hand and pulled him out of the field. That was when I started making a sound, he deceived me and I asked him for my money. He just kept it quiet. The police came and arrested him,” the woman said.
Authorities claimed Thabo and Kingsley Chele aimed at medical staff, convinced them to invest in a pharmacy business that did not exist before disappearing. The woman is believed to have been deceived to hand over R800,000 from her pension fund, and is their latest victim.
She recalls introducing Thabo to someone she knew of Moosa, who claimed Thabo was a herbalist. They also convinced her that she was about to retire and thus invested in her own business. “They knew I was going to retire, but they convinced me to retire early, cashed in on my pension, and handed it over to them and promised that my investment would grow to R5 million.”
After withdrawing the money, she was invited to attend the ancestral ceremony of Vereeniging, which Thabo allegedly performed to increase her investment. She claimed that after the ceremony, both of them disappeared with her money.
