S. African High Court told Swaziland development projects worth billions were ‘a con’

Frans Whelpton, a former law professor in South Africa, who worked closely with the Swaziland / eSwatini government on projects said to be worth billions of emalangeni that never came to anything is being accused of being a conman in a high court action.

Whelpton, once of the University of South Africa, touted projects in Swaziland, including the construction of a coal-fired power station, a social upliftment project, and creation of a free trade zone.

The Sunday Times newspaper in Johannesburg reported (9 June 2019) that a Pretoria doctor Francois Olivier is suing Whelpton in the Pretoria High Court for R6m (US$400,000), saying the former professor’s ‘grand promises were no more than a con’.

It added, ‘He says his case is just the tip of the iceberg and that over the years Whelpton has pocketed about R100m from up to 40 people.’

Whelpton denied the claim and in turn issued a defamation action against Olivier, demanding R1m in damages.

Whelpton was widely known in Swaziland for many years and was said to be close to King Mswati III, who rules the kingdom as an absolute monarch.

The Sunday Times reported that Olivier said in his court papers, there were a series of ‘fraudulent misrepresentations’ by Whelpton, which included that he had acquired rights to the:

• Development of a free trade zone in eSwatini;
• Construction of a coal-fired power station and associated infrastructure; and
• Establishment of a ‘social upliftment programme’.

The Sunday Times reported, ‘[O]ne of Whelpton’s central claims - that the UN is providing millions of dollars for his work on recording customary law in eSwatini - could not be confirmed this week. A spokesperson for the UN in SA, Zeenat Abdool, told the Sunday Times none of the UN agencies operating in SA had any record of dealing with Whelpton.’

The newspaper added, ‘Seven years ago, in a separate case, a Pretoria court ordered Whelpton to pay R10m each to two doctors, Reynhardt van Rooyen and Johannes Kok, after an alleged eSwatini health-care project in which Whelpton promised them a leading role failed to materialise.’

See also

Mystery man in King’s jet saga found

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2012/05/mystery-man-in-kings-jet-saga-found.html

$5bn Swazi power plant was a con

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2010/12/5bn-swazi-power-plant-was-con.html

SWAZI KING FELL FOR US$5bn CON-TRICK

The controversy surrounding the Swazi Government’s award of a US$90 million contract to build an oil storage facility without going through the legally-required tender process has rekindled memories of the time King Mswati III fell for a US$5 billion con-trick. 

It involved a contract that was similarly awarded without a public tender process and it raised doubts over the Swazi King’s ability to do business in the international arena.

In 2009, King Mswati, who rules Swaziland as sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch, announced he had secured US$5 billion through ‘donor aid’ to pay for two coal-powered electricity generating stations to be built in the kingdom.

The King deliberately bypassed the Swazi Government (which he personally hand-picked) and the King’s Office negotiated the deal with a firm calling itself Franken Mining. 

Prince Mangaliso-Logcogco, chair of Liqoqo, the group that advises the King, said at the time, ‘We wanted to avoid the delays, bickering and disagreements that characterise many government projects.’

The Times of Swaziland quoted the Prince saying the rights to coal reserves in Swaziland had been allocated to Franken Mining.

The Times of Swaziland quoted Prince Mangaliso-Logcogco saying that to avoid delays in seeing the project actually taking off, government had not been involved. He said government would only be brought on board once all important aspects had been covered. 

Prince Mangaliso-Logcogco said, ‘Land and minerals are under the control of the King.’ He said, ‘That is the level at which this matter is being handled.’ 

The NGO, the Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO), was quick to raise concerns about the project. In a statement it said the project, ‘has the potential to destabilise the country, ruin the environment, destroy communities and set back the cause of poverty reduction by many years if not forever.’

Prince Mangaliso-Logcogco, in an interview with the Times Sunday newspaper, called the SCCCO ‘Judas’ and launched a bitter personal attack on SCCCO chair Bishop Mabuza and the whole Anglican Church. 

The sums involved in the power station deal were vast: US$5 billion was roughly the equivalent of Swaziland’s entire gross domestic product at the time. The total amount of imports into Swaziland in 2008 was worth roughly US$2 billion. 

Within hours of the King’s announcement which received wide coverage in Swaziland itself, journalists outside the kingdom smelt a rat when they could find no trace of a company called Franken Mining.

Swazi Media Commentary reported at the time, ‘The deal is shrouded in secrecy. [Swazi Media Commentary] and others have separately been trying to find out more details and have come up against a brick wall. Top of our list of concerns is that none of us can even find a company with the name Franken Mining. Nor is it clear which international donor agencies have contributed the funding or what process was gone through before awarding the contract to Franken.’ 

‘We are right to be suspicious since Swaziland has a long track record of corruption and financial incompetence. It is estimated by the Swazi Government itself that E40 million (US4 million) is lost to corruption in Swaziland each and every month.’

It took more than 18 months before Prince Mangaliso-Logcogco admitted the King and Liqoqo had been conned by criminals who wanted to use Swaziland to launder money.

In an interview in the Times Sunday in December 2010, he said the main intention for the unnamed donors to finance the projects in Swaziland was to gain tax relief for their respective companies and associations. 

They were to apply to the US and some governments affiliated to the European Union (EU) for their companies to be granted tax relief because of their involvement in humanitarian activities in developing countries across the globe.

‘We discovered that they were a syndicate hell-bent on money laundering tactics when we checked their genuineness. I can confirm that the projects we announced last year will not take off. We can’t deal with those people who wanted to help us because their financial activities are not so clean,’ Prince Mangaliso-Logcogco told the newspaper.

He did not explain why the King ever thought Franken was legitimate, since there was no trace of their company anywhere and the amount of money it claimed to have to invest was so huge – about five times the size of Swaziland’s annual budget. 

In December 2014, in controversial circumstances, the Swazi House of Assembly passed an Act of Parliament to pay a legitimate South African company called Kantey and Templer Consulting Engineers nearly US$90 million to build oil storage facilities at Phuzumoya, in the Lubombo region.

The contract had not been put out to open tender and a number of Swazi parliamentarians questioned the manner in which the deal was done. 

One Senator, Chief Kekela, said Swaziland had experienced a number of projects that have failed as a result of companies whose profiles and credibility was not considered. ‘We have seen companies that have come and made heavenly promises that have however not come to effect and failed and I must say I do not want to work on risks here as a risk is dangerous, we should not therefore risk with the Swazi people,’ the Senator said.

See also

$5bn SWAZI POWER PLANT WAS A CON

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2010/12/5bn-swazi-power-plant-was-con.html

GOVT UNDER FIRE IN US$90m OIL DEAL

http://swazimedia.blogspot.com/2015/01/govt-under-fire-in-90m-oil-deal.html  

RETRACT JUDAS JIBE, KING’S MAN TOLD

The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations (SCCCO) is demanding an apology from Prince Mangaliso-Logcogco, the chair of King Mswati III’s advisory council Liqoqo, following revelations that a US$5 billion deal to build a power station in the kingdom was a contrick.

In 2009, when the project involving Franken Mining was announced with great fanfare as a great coup for the king, SCCCO was among a small band that doubted the viability of the project.

For this, Bishop Meshack Mabuza, SCCCO Chairman, was branded a ‘Judas’ by Prince Mangaliso.

In a statement SCCCO now demands a retraction from the Prince.

Here is SCCCO’s statement in full.

COALITION DEMANDS RETRACTION FROM PRINCE MANGALISO FOR ‘JUDAS’ COMMENT

The Swaziland Coalition of Concerned Civic Organisations notes with relief that the proposed US$5 Billion Mine and Power Station project is now dead. It also notes that the reasons that the deal is dead was because it was simply a corrupt money laundering scheme that would never have brought a cent to the country.

In April 2009 when the project was announced, the Coalition took a little time to do some research and within a day knew that the project was never going to be viable. It compared how other African Leaders, especially President Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia, had negotiated their deals with western businesses. It looked at the way that this project was put together and came to only one conclusion. It was ripe for corruption from the start and should not be touched.

The Coalition set out a series of 20 questions that were designed to test the ability of this project to benefit the Swazi Nation. For these questions Prince Mangaliso, called the Coalition and its Chairman Bishop Meshack Mabuza ‘Judas’ for betraying the Swazi Nation. The Coalition thinks that it would be appropriate for the Prince to acknowledge his misjudgment and publicly withdraw that remark.

The Coalition also questions the assertion that no money has been spent. Who paid for the tendering process that appeared in the ‘Engineering Times’ last year? Does Professor [Frans] Whelpton work for free? Who paid for his trip to Germany and Switzerland last year?

Bishop Meshack Mabuza, Chair of the Coalition said ‘The Coalition was called terrible names for asking the questions that nobody else asks and shining a light into some unwelcome places. This is what a healthy Civil Society is supposed do. Because we do not seek power or riches, we can ask questions of those who do. It turns out that when they are too arrogant to answer us, and childishly call us names, it is because we were right. Ordinary Swazis know what happens when deals are done in the dark. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The real Judases are those who are betraying the Swazi Nation for their own thirty pieces of silver.’

See also

$5bn SWAZI POWER PLANT WAS A CON

SWAZI POWER ‘FRAUD’ RETURNS

SWAZILAND KING LOSES POWER

$5bn SWAZI ‘FRAUD’ MYSTERY DEEPENS

RAGE AT $5bn SWAZI ‘FRAUD’ REPORT

$5bn SWAZI FRAUD IN THE MAKING?

$5bn SWAZI POWER PLANT WAS A CON

The office of King Mswati III has fallen for a US$5 billion con trick over a coal powered electricity plant.

The king’s advisory body Liqoqo bypassed the Swaziland Parliament to set up the deal with international aid donors.

Now, it has been realised there was no money and the scheme was a con to ‘launder money’.

It revolves around a nonexistent company called Franken Mining. Regular readers of this blog will remember that in April 2009 I wrote that King Mswati III had secured this amount to pay for Franken Mining to build coal power stations, but suspicions were aroused because no one could trace a company called Franken Mining.

The waters got murkier when it was revealed that the Swazi Government had not been involved in any negotiations over the project: instead King Mswati deliberately by-passed ministers and his office made the deal itself.

Myself and others working independently tried to piece together the background to this deal. Chief among our concerns was that US$5 billion was said to be available through donor aid to pay for two coal-powered electricity generating stations to be built in the kingdom but there was no evidence about which international donor agencies have contributed the funding or what process was gone through before awarding the contract to Franken.

We were all right to be suspicious, because no such company existed. It was a con – but it has taken 20 months for the King’s office to work it out.

A report yesterday (5 December 2010) in the Times Sunday, an independent newspaper in Swaziland, reports Prince Mangaliso-Logcogco, the chair of Liqoqo, saying that the main intention for the unnamed donors to finance the projects in Swaziland was to gain tax relief for their respective companies and associations.

They were to apply to the US and some governments affiliated to the European Union (EU) that their companies be granted tax relief because of their involvement in humanitarian activities in developing countries across the globe.

‘We discovered that they were a syndicate hell-bent on money laundering tactics when we checked their genuineness. I can confirm that the projects we announced last year will not take off. We can’t deal with those people who wanted to help us because their financial activities are not so clean,’ Prince Mangaliso-Logcogco told the newspaper.

What isn’t fully explained is why the Prince ever thought Franken was legitimate. There was no trace of their company anywhere and the amount of money it claimed to have to invest was so huge – about five times the size of Swaziland’s annual budget.

Also at the centre of the deal was Professor Frans Whelpton, of the University of South Africa. He was supposed to be the middle man between the Swazi Government and Franken. According to Prince Mangaliso-Logcogco in 2009, Whelpton was to invest and manage the US$5 billion.

Now, the Prince says Whelpton was also a victim of the con. Whelpton made the news last month (November 2010) when another project he was involved in – to secure E400 million in development aid as part of a deal to get back E28 million deposit for a private jet for the king – was announced to be a failure.

See also

SWAZI POWER ‘FRAUD’ RETURNS

SWAZILAND KING LOSES POWER

$5bn SWAZI ‘FRAUD’ MYSTERY DEEPENS

RAGE AT $5bn SWAZI ‘FRAUD’ REPORT

$5bn SWAZI FRAUD IN THE MAKING?