The plot thickens for Qhawe

MANZINI—To say this has been an eventful week for Qhawe Mamba would be an understatement.

The Channel Swazi boss is fighting to save his companies after the Central Bank announced this past week that his Channel S Club is a pyramid scheme, subsequ-ently freezing his accounts.

In the midst of all that, Mamba has learned of a plot to kill him, with hired assassins already trailing him for more than two weeks, unbeknown to him.

The charismatic Mamba, who is also a suspect in the controversial E50m fraud case, is currently out of the couintry after getting a tip-off that there are people who are plotting to kill him.

These are the latest developments after the Central Bank froze his accounts last week on grounds that he was allegedly operating a pyramid scheme which has over 10 000 members.

His scheme was closed together with the controversial company Diamond Africa widely known as CDT.

Nkosingiphile Mbhamali, who is a co-founder of the club, confirmed to this newspaper that he has received messages from unknown people who have made it clear that his boss’ days are numbered.

Mbhamali, who is also the station manager at Channel Swazi, also received a message to that effect from well-known private investigator Hunter Shongwe who warned that the former OB director must run for his dear life.

Apparently Shongwe has been hired by one of Qhawe’s ‘enemies’ to follow his every move. Shong-we, when called by this newsp-aper, also confirmed the matter but said at this point he would not reveal the name of his client.

"I’m not supposed to comment on this but will do so because you have asked me. Yes, two men came to hire my office to kill Qhawe and I told them that my office doesn’t have assassins but we only do private investigations," he said. He said in past instances, he had alerted the people targeted for death. Some take him seriously while some simply ignore him. He would not mention any of the people, hence the claims could not be verified.

"I have called Qhawe himself to inform him about the plot and I called him despite the fact that we are not in good terms," he said without elaborating. Asked to clarify, he declined to explain further.

When this newspaper tried contacting Mamba on his local number, it was not available on the MTN network and Mbhamali confirmed that he flew out of the country on Thursday night, on the advice of Shongwe.

"Yes, I can confirm that he is out of the country after he was warned that there were people out to kill him, and that he needed to ‘go away’," said Mbhamali.

Mbhamali received two messages from the unknown people and despite that it was a local number, he claims when he tried to call it back countless times, his calls were rejected until another message was sent which advised him to see Shongwe who had all the details.

It was also gathered that Mamba had been followed for the whole of last week, details of this being made to Mbhamali by the alleged assassins.

Assistant Police PRO Stephen Dlamini confirmed the incident. He said police have resumed investigations.

According to a person privy to information on the case, Mamba had noticed that he was being followed a few weeks ago, and began to be cautious whenever he left the station for home, late each night.

It is said he would have Mbhamali follow him home, or leave with him, hence when he got the call that he had been followed he believed it.

Police have confirmed that the matter has been reported to the Mbabane police. Assistant Police PRO Stephen Dlamini said police have already started investiga-tions. "We have to establish the source of the threats, as a preliminary part of the investi-gation," he said.

After his scheme was closed and his accounts frozen, the Channel Swazi director filed court papers and this resulted in High Court Judge Justice Jacobus Annandale granting an order setting aside the freezing of the accounts pending the finalisation of the matter this week where the other party would have filed its own papers.

The matter is expected to be heard this Tuesday and the Central Bank is expected to file its court papers tomorrow.

Qhawe Mamba is represented by lawyer Noel Mabuza while Central Bank will be represented by Mangaliso Magagula from Hlophe–Magagula Attorneys.

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