Shock and disbelief filled the Manzini Magistrate’s Court as an employee of the Eswatini Revenue Service (ERS) recounted how alleged ‘facata’ scammers tricked her into taking out a loan of over E340 000 before siphoning E267 500 from her account.
Lungile Cynthia Dlamini of Mafutseni testified before Principal Magistrate Florence Msibi in the ongoing trial of Londiwe Mbali Mamba, alleged to be a ‘facata’ scammer.
Dlamini, who is the complainant, told the court that before the incident, her Standard Bank account held only E2 800. She explained that on February 18, while attending a workshop in Pretoria, South Africa, she received a WhatsApp call from a number bearing a logo of the Royal Eswatini Police Service (REPS) on its profile.
Dlamini claimed the caller posed as a police officer from the Cybercrime Unit at Mbabane Police Headquarters. He told her that her Standard Bank account had been hacked by ‘facata’ scammers.
He assured her that she had committed no offence, then transferred the call to Mamba, who introduced herself as ‘Nondumiso,’ a supposed bank official.
Dlamini said she trusted Mamba because her real banker shares the same name.
Mamba claimed that fraudsters had applied for a pre-approved loan of about E343 000 using her account and were withdrawing funds through Unayo vouchers. Believing she was being helped, Dlamini provided her banking details.
Soon after, she received confirmation that the E343 000 loan had been deposited.
Between February 18 and 20, the money was withdrawn in stages through Unayo vouchers. Dlamini, who used two phones, missed the voucher notifications sent to her work phone while abroad as she was not roaming.
She later discovered that the fraudsters had accessed personal details, including those of her daughter Wendziwe.
About E35 000 was transferred into Wendziwe’s FNB account and scammers persuaded her to share her PIN, enabling them to withdraw E15 000. FNB froze the remaining E20 000 after flagging suspicious activity.
In total, Dlamini lost E267 500.
She reported the matter to the police and queried Standard Bank, which explained that the loan was pre-approved and automatically released via digital platforms.
Meanwhile, Mamba initially faced 47 charges, but the Crown withdrew 24, leaving 23 counts of defrauding the public. She pleaded not guilty and the trial was postponed to July 14.
Dlamini testified that she has been repaying the loan since March, with deductions taken directly from her salary at an interest rate of 15.2%. She described the repayments as crippling and said the debt would burden her until 2031 unless the bank intervenes.
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The court also heard from pensioner Joel Dlamini of Mdumezulu, who lost E14 900 after scammers posing as police and FNB officials convinced him to transfer funds into eWallet accounts. Suspicious, he stopped further transactions and reported the matter.
State witness Hlobisile Nosmilo Mnisi, once arrested alongside Mamba, testified that she unknowingly assisted Mamba in withdrawing E10 000 via Unayo believing she was helping a friend.
