PASTOR ACCUSED OF DEFRAUDING ARROW FEEDS, FARMERS OF ABOUT E500 000

MANZINI - A pastor, who was a middle man in the sale of maize between Arrow Feeds and farmers, has been reported to police for alleged fraud of about E500 000.

This was after the man of the cloth, who is said to have been also working in one of the department at Arrow Feeds, allegedly vanished with the maize growers’ money and the company later discovered that he had purportedly defrauded it of about E500 000. It is believed that the farmers would give their maize harvest to the pastor to sell on their behalf at Arrow Feeds.
For this, the company paid him over E200 000 for the tonnes of maize he supplied the company with, around September 2022, after he collected the maize from farmers under Khukhanyeni Constituency. Arrow Feeds is a company that manufactures and supplies a full range of animal feed in Eswatini. The company also produces maize meal and it usually deals directly with farmers.

Residence

According to one of the affected farmers from Kukhanyeni, in the Manzini Region, the pastor, whose name and place of residence is known to this publication, but will not be mentioned as he has not been charged, doubles as a businessman who runs a hammer mill. He said about a couple of years ago, he invited maize growers who wanted to sell their harvest to bring it to the mill as he had a contract to supply Arrow Feeds with maize. He said at first, the pastor collected their maize and paid them (in cash) accordingly, after he had delivered it to Arrow Feeds. He said later on, he collected a second batch of tonnes of maize from them, but there were challenges when he was supposed to pay them. It is alleged he said that the payment was delayed and that he eventually paid them in stages. The farmer said the pastor claimed that there were some challenges with the client, but they were working on addressing them.

Thereafter, in September 2022, the clergyman approached them and they agreed to give him their maize because they were made to believe that the challenges he faced with the client after delivering the previous stock, had been resolved. “After delivering our maize at Arrow Feeds, he did not come back to us and when we tried to contact his staff members, they told us that they would call us once our money was ready,” the source said. He added that one of the staff members claimed that the account where the money was deposited by Arrow Feeds had been frozen by the bank, pending investigations. The farmer said, on average, most of them were expecting over E4 000, but there were others who brought many tonnes of maize.

Contact

Later on, he said when they tried to contact the pastor, they found that his cellphone numbers were not available on MTN Eswatini and Eswatini Mobile networks. He added that they also did not find him at his home and his whereabouts were unclear. “Now, we do not have money to plough our fields again, which means that our businesses will collapse. The painful thing is that some of the affected farmers are elderly people,” the source said. Meanwhile, Arrow Feeds’ Cronje Marais said he was aware of the complaint from the farmers. However, he said he was shocked to learn that the pastor was taking the maize from farmers. “I have worked with him for about five years and he was supplying us with maize as a sole trader and we were paying money under his name. We have worked well over the years and I regarded him as one of my trustworthy suppliers as he was also a pastor. In September, we paid him over E200 000 for the tonnes of maize he supplied,” Marais said.

He said after the company had paid the pastor in September 2022, he was called by a farmer from Kukhanyeni, who complained about delayed payment. He said after the call from the farmer, he engaged the pastor and later on, he called the maize grower, who informed him that he had been paid. Again, he said later on, he was approached by three other affected farmers and when he tried to engage the pastor, he found that his mobile numbers were not available from both MTN Eswatini and Eswatini Mobile networks. “I assumed he had altered his cellphone numbers because I tried calling him several times, but in vain. As such, I decided to open a fraud case with the police because he also owes the company a lot of money,” Marais said.

However, he did not disclose how he allegedly defrauded the company. He just said there was a lot of money he was supposed to pay the company. Instead, he referred this publication to the police. His argument was that he was currently on leave, which meant that he did not have access to the documents that had information regarding the matter. Meanwhile, another source, who is close to the matter, said Arrow Feeds allegedly discovered that while processing some payments, the pastor in question was purportedly defrauding the company by paying more money. The source claimed that he would take the remaining balance, purportedly for his own benefit.

Available

This publication also tried to contact the pastor, but his mobile phones were not available on both networks. Some of his family members who were contacted said he was in South Africa, supposedly for a church related visit. Thereafter, they were asked to share contact numbers which they use to communicate with him. However, in response, they claimed that they did not have any and did not communicate with him while he was away. Chief Police Information and Communications Officer Superintendent Phindile Vilakati confirmed that a case had been opened against the middle man (pastor). He said the amount which was recorded by the complainant (Marais) was about E500 000 and the police were investigating the matter.

When asked if the suspect in the fraud case was a wanted man or not, the police spokesperson said so far, no communication had been sent to her office, which declared him as a wanted suspect. However, a source highlighted to this publication that the investigating officers have, not once, but several times, tried to contact and locate him, but in vain.

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