GRAAFF-REINET NEWS — Graaff-Reinet police are currently investigating a case of fraud against a high-profile entrepreneur who has previously been in trouble for a fake cellphone business in Gauteng.
Thulani Khoza, originally from Ekurhuleni, is believed to have posed as a foreign-exchange (forex) trader and defrauded a Graaff-Reinet couple of a R30 000 investment in his scheme.
This amount excludes thousands that the couple spent on Khoza’s business travel, for accommodation and sourcing equipment for a construction business the trio were set up.
Graaff-Reinet police spokesperson Captain Rudi Adams confirmed that a case of fraud had been opened against Khoza. “Sgt Richard Williamson of the detective branch is the investigating officer. He is currently in Pretoria, busy with the investigation to trace the suspect,” said Adams.
Complainant Thandile Jacobs, a businesswoman from Main Road, Umasizakhe, said she met Khoza last year through a WhatsApp group of business owners in the Eastern Cape.
It is alleged that Khoza proposed that she join his forex trading venture, with the promise that her R30 000 investment would generate a R2.3 million return after six months.
Shortly after, Khoza invited Jacobs to invest in a deal worth R450m, which would require her construction company, as a subcontractor, to hire 30 workers across five provinces.
These workers would be used to dig trenches for the installation of fibre-optic cables on behalf of a telecommunications company.
An agreement document between Khoza’s company and the telecommunication company, which states the subcontractor would initially get a minimum of R10m to source materials from suppliers, has been shown to be fraudulent.
Jacobs said Khoza has been to her house at least three times and, on those occasions, he made the Jacobs’ travel to different towns to get quotes for vehicles and other machinery.
“We took him to dealerships in Queenstown, East London, Port Elizabeth and Port Alfred to look at office space. We spent a lot of money on accommodation, and we even travelled with him to Cape Town to meet someone he called his business associate,” said Jacobs.
She became suspicious when Khoza could not transport some of the machinery from Johannesburg to the Eastern Cape. He started making excuses about returning the R30 000 she had invested in his forex trading venture. He is alleged to have also failed to return R2 500 that Jacobs had given to him to buy sandals for a shoe business she had started in Graaff-Reinet.
Khoza made the news in 2016 when he claimed he would make the first South African-produced smartphone through his company Thules Communications.
This was followed by several TV, radio and newspaper interviews which elevated his profile. He also started working as a motivational speaker, where he would inspire students and entrepreneurs.
However, in December 2016, he was exposed for being a fake entrepreneur who owed money to many people who had invested in his cellphone product, which had never got off the ground. It also emerged he had lied on his resume about graduating with a BSc degree from Wits University in 2006, and an MBA from Harvard in the US in 2014.
It transpired that Thules Communications was, in fact, registered under his then girlfriend's name. Khoza did not own any legitimate business and possessed an invalid ID.
Following these revelations, the Department of Social Development stripped him of the SA Man of the Year award that he won for science and technology in 2016.
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