A second-hand BMW, a birthday party and the extension of a house.
This is how a Soweto unemployed man accused of stealing his cousin’s Road Accident Fund (RAF) payout of R421,000 spent the money within a month.
Samukelo bought a second-hand car, threw a party for his child’s birthday and extended his mother’s house, only to later claim he had won the windfall from online sports betting.
Now the victim of the theft, Thabo Khoza, 39, who was hit by a car seven years ago while selling food on the streets, can’t afford medical consultation fees with a doctor. Khoza broke one of his legs during the crash, lost hearing and has constant headaches which need medical attention.
His payout received in March last year was transferred in three tranches out of this bank account allegedly by his cousin Samukelo using Khoza’s banking app.
Khoza said he was hit by a car in Soweto in 2019 while he was crossing a street to sell food items to school kids.
His lawyer deposited R421,000 into his Capitec Bank account on March 25 last year.
According to Khoza, the money was transferred from his account via the bank’s application the following day in three tranches of R20,000, R350,000 and R25,000.
“I wasn’t even aware that the RAF had paid, and I only noticed these big sums in my account three days after the deposit was made. However, it was already late because almost all of it was gone,” recalled Khoza.
He said after checking his bank statement closer with the assistance of his brother Welcome Ndou, Khoza realised that his cousin Samukelo had transferred the money into his personal account, and this was also confirmed by Capitec Bank when the theft was reported to them.
“I trusted my cousin too much because he would assist me to get around because of my blindness. Sometimes I’d go to the ATM to withdraw my social grant money with him and I’d call out the PIN code to him at the ATM. He was the one who helped me load the banking app on my phone.
“I never thought he’d steal from me, and even when I confronted him he lied and said he had some money from betting,” said Khoza.
He also claimed the bank failed to effectively suspend his bank account, posing more risk to his social grant deposits.
Ndou told Sowetan Khoza’s bank app required facial recognition, which Samukelo managed to bypass. “Samukelo spent all the money and now I have to care for my brother ... and we can’t afford his medical bills,” said Ndou.
Capitec Bank’s PR lead, Inganathi Mnyasane, said the transactions were executed using valid access credentials linked to the account.
“The beneficiary [Samukelo] to whom the funds were paid was added and authenticated using biometric verification through the client’s selfie. An affidavit provided by the client [Khoza] during the investigation confirms that a close family member received the funds,” said Mnyanase.
She further said their investigation found no evidence of a failure or compromise of Capitec’s banking systems or security controls.
“The transactions could not have been completed without access to the client’s confidential security details and successful biometric authentication. On this basis, the matter was classified as a civil dispute between the client [Khoza] and the family member [Samukelo], not bank-related fraud,” said Mnyanase.
Police spokesperson Capt Tintswalo Sibeko confirmed that a case of theft was opened against Samukelo, 37, and he appeared in court in April and again in September.
Sowetan
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