After losing R500,000 in an alleged fake forex trading deal with self-proclaimed millionaire Sandile Shezi, Allan Ledwaba was forced to downsize from a luxurious Johannesburg Estate apartment to a backroom in Hammanskraal, north of Pretoria. Shezi, who claims to be South Africa's youngest billionaire, made headlines last week when he surrendered to Sandton police after a warrant for his arrest was issued for allegedly scamming Ledwaba in 2017.
Shezi was granted R5,000 bail at the Alexandra magistrate's court on Thursday. Ledwaba claimed he was still licking his wounds because of a disastrous financial venture he made with Shezi, which jeopardized his family's livelihood and caused a rift in his relationship with his father, in a poignant interview with Sowetan on Friday. “Sandile [Shezi] had a negative impact on my life. ”I don't care if he receives a jail sentence or not; all I worry about is getting my money since my family's future depends on it, Ledwaba added.
He said he had to leave his R10,000-a-month apartment to rent an R300 backyard room in Hammanskraal. “I pretended everything was OK for a few days until my father sat me down and demanded that I show him bank statements for the money he had given me.” When I informed him what had happened to Shezi, he went insane. He ejected me from the home and instructed me not to return until I had his money. “I became estranged from my family.” I felt ashamed and embarrassed. In order to support myself and my three-year-old kid, who was living with his mother in Johannesburg, I began selling snacks from my apartment. She was also forced to return to her home and live with her family. “I also sold the company automobile,” Ledwaba added.
It will take around eight months for Ledwaba and his father to resume communication, and he is now funding Ledwaba's legal struggle with Shezi. Ledwaba claimed he met Shezi in 2016 after graduating from the University of Mpumalanga with a degree in agriculture studies and plans to create a commercial farm for his family. When he moved to Johannesburg from Mpumalanga, he was 23 years old and unemployed. His father had given him a loan of R500,000 to establish the farm. “I didn't know much about forex trading, but it piqued my interest,” he explained. He then paid R10,000 to have Shezi as his lifelong mentor after attending one of Shezi's lectures in Sandton. Shezi allegedly introduced Ledwaba to his VIP trading account, in which clients could pay a minimum of R100,000 and Shezi would trade on their behalf, according to Ledwaba.
“He wouldn't mind revealing his clients that account had R86 million in it.” I was persuaded to invest all of my funds at once after seeing how much he had. He also showed me his trade license; I was familiar with all of his offices around the nation, including their head office in KZN, and I had met his wife and father. “It was a real business in my thinking, and I could track him down if anything went wrong,” said Ledwaba, who also attended Shezi's wedding in 2017. They agreed that Ledwaba would get dividends every year, with a 100% return the first year and a doubling every year following that.
“My major goal was to leverage my investment to earn more money so that I could buy a farm,” Ledwaba explained. Shezi, on the other hand, gave him the runaround when he asked for his money a year later. Ledwaba had to quit his residence after months of unsuccessful attempts to obtain his dividends, and finally went to his parents' home in Hammanskraal.
