‘It’s not a scam,’ says man from scheme involving 500 000 poor people

City Press has managed to track down a key figure in what appears to be a scam that lured poor people into “investing” in a scheme that used a similar logo to that of the United Nations.

Diaku Dianzenza is a key figure behind a “UN Swissindo M1 Voucher” programme that convinced more than 500 000 poor and vulnerable people into believing that they would benefit from a grant voucher for life.

The newspaper published an article about the programme on October 15 after being told that the poor were queuing at Bapedi Hall in Meadowlands Zone 3, Soweto, to register to access the voucher at a cost of R50 – broken down into R20 for photos, R20 for a certificate of application and R10 to set up their email account.

At the time, the UN local office and the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco), distanced themselves from the “humanitarian” programme, claiming it was a scam.

A Sanco Johannesburg structure, led by Thomas Thaga, distanced itself from people who claimed to be from his organisation and were registering the poor under pretext that they would benefit from the programme.

City Press has established that these people called themselves the Sanco Johannesburg faction and did not recognise Thaga’s faction.

The newspaper also managed to track down Dianzenza, who said he was living in Durban. He confirmed that he was “implementing” the programme in South Africa and Botswana. He said the programme had been halted in Africa following information that there were people charging communities – something that he alleges was unacceptable.

Dianzenza holds a PhD on the topic of peace building at the Durban University of Technology. He completed his master’s degree in conflict resolution and peace studies from the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Both universities confirmed this.

He said he would forward City Press’s questions to UN Swissindo’s acting secretary-general Gloria Nweze.

Dianzenza sent City Press a copy of a notice from Nweze announcing that the programme had been halted in Africa (see below).

He shared the notice after City Press showed him a copy of a notice he signed and handed over to the so-called Sanco faction in Johannesburg, which confirmed its involvement in the programme.

According to his notice dated October 19 and addressed to the so-called Sanco faction, Dianzenza said he had suspended the programme.

Dianzenza said he knew about the programme in 2016 but was recruited in August 2017 by “the Empress of Africa”.

He said all positions were voluntary with no payment of any kind.

When asked about the “Empress of Africa”, whom he did not name, Dianzenza said she lived in Cape Town but had resigned from the organisation at the beginning of this year.

He said Nweze was the “highest authority in UN Swissindo in Africa Linggacala”.

When confronted with the information that an official in UN local office had indicated to City Press that US Swissindo was a scam, Dianzenza said: “Which United Nations are you referring to? Who did you speak to? What are your genuine sources of findings that you consult to reach your conclusions? I have read documents signed even by higher officials of international organisations like the UN, the CIA, the Vatican etc. How do you call such an organisation a scam? People like to read what they think is their belief. That is why the shift of paradigm in this becomes a problem.”

Dianzenza added: “And what will you say if you see the signatures of all ministers of finance of all countries around the world, which are sealed with the UN stamp since 2007? That official might be ignorant.”

He denied that he was responsible for accepting applications for the voucher. “Lies. Do you know why? … I suspended the upload link. For you to be in the database, all M1 Vouchers are submitted to our emails, then the well-identified admins who have the duty to upload the M1 Vouchers. That way, I stopped the fraudulent activities of people selling M1 Vouchers. No one pays admins to do the work.”

This was despite the fact that Aubrey Nxumalo, who identified himself as the US Swissindo provincial leader, confirmed to City Press that he had accepted R20 from the poor together with another provincial leader, Creselda Leboloane.

Nxumalo said many people were registered and money was collected because they did not have resources.

He was not aware of R50 charged by representatives from the so-called Sanco faction.

Attempts to get a comment from Leboloane were futile. She did not responded to calls and text messages.

Dianzenza said he was aware of Leboloane but would not respond to what was said by Nxumalo or whether he knew him.

Instead, he wanted proof that poor communities paid money to Nxumalo and did not respond to questions about what the organisation is going to do about Nxumalo’s confession.

In the meantime, the so-called Sanco faction in Johannesburg, which met with City Press reporter on Wednesday at the Youth Centre in White City, Soweto, confirmed that they were involved in the UN Swissindo programme.

The group alleged that they were the legitimate structure and were not recognising Thaga’s structure.

They claimed that a court order made by the Gauteng High Court in August 2006 instructing the then Sanco national executive committee to set a date for a national conference was the basis of their disgruntlement.

Following this court order, the group said all Sanco conferences were illegitimate in the region.

The Thaga group, they said, was imposed on communities.

Thaga said this was “hogwash” and that his executive was elected at a valid regional conference in November 2016.

“These people are just wasting your time,” he said.