How E340 Million was squandered

About 1500 emaSwati who invested in Ecsponent Eswatini Limited had their hard-earned savings amounting to E340 million transferred to various investments, including to South Africa and Botswana, without their consent and thereafter squandered.
The Ecsponent Eswatini Limited directors reportedly relocated the funds under the guise that they were invested in other companies to increase the individual investors’ returns and dividends. George Manyere and his group MHMK is allegedly at the centre of this squandering of emaSwati’s monies.
This publication has gathered that Manyere was the majority shareholder since 2016.
The company initially started operating in the country in 2010 and over years attracted a sizeable number of emaSwati who included retirees, pensioners, civil servants, church groups, and public and private cooperative societies, among others. Manyere was appointed as a director of Ecsponent Limited in 2016, was the controlling shareholder and a non-executive Director until January 2019. In 2019, he even took the operational reins not only as the major shareholder but also as the Executive Vice Chairman until 2020 when he became CEO of Ecsponent Limited (now Afristrat Holdings Limited).
In 2020 , Zimbabwean-born businessman George Manyere acquired both Ecsponent Eswatini Limited and its parent company Ecsponent Holdings from the listed Ecsponent parent company where he was the major shareholder through his Mauritian-registered company MHMK Group for R1.
Notably, after the issue of the lost investors’ money came to the fore, this publication has gathered that Manyere rebranded the company from Ecsponent Eswatini Limited to ESW Investment Group.

The following information is taken from the ESW Investment Groups audited 2020 financial statements:

Despite the undisputed evidence of the involvement of Manyere in the Ecsponent outrage, Global Fintech entrepreneur Dave Van Niekerk has for some reason been put at the centre of this scandal.
Recently, ESW Investment Group approached the High Court on an urgent basis, after learning that the duo of Dave Van Niekerk and Edwin J Soonious were in the country. It is believed that the two were alter-egos of Ecsponent Eswatini (PTY) LTD and GetBucks South Africa.
The court further directed the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (Immigration Department) to assist in the execution of an order interdicting the two from leaving the Kingdom of Eswatini. Officials from the Immigration Department had been directed to flag and advise police officers upon seeing Van Niekerk and Soonious leaving the Kingdom of Eswatini through any of the entry or exit points.

Van Niekerk and Soonious were supposed to remain in the country until the finalisation of a legal action to be launched against them for the payment of the funds over the sum of E340 million to be instituted. The interim order was issued by Judge Justice Mavuso yesterday.
The two businessmen however, left the country despite the court order. Dave Van Niekerk came out, guns blazing and clarified that he did not run away from the court.
He categorically stated that the court application to restrict him and Edwin Soonius from leaving the country came to his attention on the morning of August 01st when he became aware of an article that appeared in one of the local papers in Eswatini.

He said that they were neither informed let alone served with a copy of the application nor the court order that was granted by the High Court to restrict their exit.

“I was in Eswatini on July 31 for a meeting. I flew back to the Republic of South Africa on the same day. After becoming aware of the application and the order granted by the Court, our attorneys on record obtained a copy of the application from the Court and filed a notice of intention to oppose,” he stated.
Van Niekerk further denied any involvement in the Ecsponent Group of companies and its holding company Ecsponent Limited.

He stated that it was peculiar that he has been cited in the application even though he was neither a director nor part of the management of the company “nor was I in any way involved in the Ecsponent Group of companies and its holding company Ecsponent Limited, now Afristrat Limited.”

He added that the MHMK Group Limited has several on-going court cases in various countries. Furthermore the Bank of Zambia have also found Manyere not fit and proper to hold the position of a director of a financial institution or bank in Zambia. According to Van Niekerk, Max Mkhonza the newly appointed CEO of ESW Investments actually concedes that he has no personal knowledge of the apparent allegations and concedes that he (Dave Van Niekerk) was never a director of the company ( ESW or Ecsponent) . He claims that Dave Van Niekerk was a director in a South African company called VSS Financial Services and referred to an audit report which he alleges shows that I received funds. This company or supposed investment shows nowhere in the audited financials of ESW Investments ( Ecsponent Eswatini).
“He then alleges that I was the ultimate beneficiary of the funds. There are however no facts to support these allegations at all. The Forensic Findings Report makes no mention of any funds having been paid by the applicant to VSS at all. Furthermore, the issues addressed in the said report are not related or pertain to the applicant at all,” Van Niekerk stated.

He further elaborated that the issues raised in the said report have been investigated by the liquidators of VSS who have held a commission of inquiry into the affairs of VSS and with whom he has co-operated.

“VSS was the Fintech backbone of the MyBucks Group. VSS developed proprietary lending, banking, and Artificial Intelligence services and technology for the group. These IT systems won numerous awards in Germany and Luxembourg. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of MyBucks S.A. and provided the MyBucks group information technology and related administrative services and had nothing at all to do with the applicant. The Artificial Intelligence, Intellectual Property and Technology of VSS in which VSS expended substantial investment has disappeared since the liquidation of VSS. The liquidators are however investigating how this technology landed in the hands of Finclusion (ironically also an MHMK subsidiary as per their own website),” he stated.

In closing Van Niekerk points out the irregularities just keep coming. Tertius De Kock (Nexia SAB&T), who was the group audit partner responsible for Ecsponent Limited’s audit for the JSE (who signed off the group audited financials in Nov 2019) became the group CFO in March 2020.