Durban — A prominent Wentworth pastor is accused of being part of the World Housing Fund, a “dubious” organisation that has allegedly scammed people out of money with the promise of homes.
It is alleged that the pastor is the chief operating officer of the fund which he established with another pastor from Gauteng in 2018.
In a WhatsApp group created by the victims, they claim to have been lured into the scheme and asked to pay R800 for registration. They were promised decent houses, but not one member had received a house to date.
The victims have resorted to demanding their money back from the administrators of the fund. They believe the fund has scammed people from across South Africa.
A victim, from Wentworth, estimated that the fund had scammed 20000 people, and pocketed an estimated R20 million.
He said he joined in 2019 with the hope of getting a house, describing the pastor as a trustworthy person and smooth talker. Many in the group said they trusted the pastor.
Another victim, Jeremiah Lee from Durban, described the fund administrators as “wolves in sheep’s clothing“ who used the word of God to scam people.
Lee claimed they were told that there were funders from Dubai, Israel, the UK and US who were going to invest money for the housing projects.
The Daily News also saw a video clip purportedly from a man in the US who was giving the assurance that $R500 million (R9 billion) was coming to the World Housing Fund in South Africa. However, victims said it was a staged video clip by leaders of the scheme to lure in more people.
Nandi Siphamla, who was the Eastern Cape leader of the fund, said people did not lose their registration fee of R800, but some like her who were employed to recruit people lost a lot of money since they were going around using their cars to recruit with the hope that they would be paid at the end of the month which never happened.
“I lost my car and my house because of that scam.
“I worked so many months waiting for my salary and had taken all the money to buy the car with the hope that I would make money out of this scheme,” said Siphamla.
She was aware that there were people still paying money to the scheme with the hope that they would get houses, she said.
Contacted for comment, the pastor first promised he would give his side of the story but later switched off his phone. Attempts to get the founder were unsuccessful.
However, on the fund supporters’ Facebook page, there is a pledge which reads: “We, WHF Supporters Club, stand with ... (name of the founder) and the management team.
“The general membership believes in the project or concept. We shall create wealth for ourselves, by ourselves!!!
“WHF has a mandate to build 60 000 houses in South Africa only. Over 337 000 in Africa and 2 000 000 million (sic) members in the world.
“We shall defend and protect our brand without favour or prejudice. WE ARE WHF, WHF IS US. We are inseparable with our brand. The devil is a liar and he shall not snatch from us what is ours.”
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Daily News