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By Mbongeni Mbingo | 2024-11-22
Ask anyone who has been a victim of the so-called ‘Facata scammers’ about their experience and they will tell you of the exasperation at the discovery of two facts – nowhere to go for help and that the money is gone.
The rest of it, trying to call the person and trying to locate them really doesn’t matter. In the end, it is the reality that the police are helpless and the service providers are equally of no use.
So, what you are left with is trying to make peace with the fact that you have just been made a fool, or that you have fallen for a scam or that you are not the only one.
You shrug your shoulders and move on, and come across another person who has fallen victim and console yourself that you are not the only one. And this thing has been happening for years, without anyone seemingly giving a hoot about it.
Scammers
Each day these scammers were devising a new trick a new skelems and were using different tactics – Mobile Money, eWallet – whatever they could use. They were, as it turns out, using multiple ways to con people and it worked every time.
Many victims tried every possible way to fight back, and many ran to social media platforms to tell of their angst and to ask people for help. It never did.
The thugs were allowed to get away with it. They were allowed to perfect and polish the gimmick. They were allowed to grow in number and grow they did.
They were allowed to steal and enrich themselves with money from the poor and lived a lavish lifestyle with money that wasn’t theirs. They made a killing out of this.
There are now over 50 people who have been arrested in connection with the ‘Facata scam’, a very unsophisticated way of stealing money from the public.
The only thing they thrived on was the desperation from members of the public for quick money themselves – which is quite ironic, but that is not the point today.
The reason this worked is that people are struggling to make ends meet and so when there is an opportunity they run for it, only to end up falling for a scam – losing the little they had in their possession. This is the painful nature of the victims of the scammers, who today have lost over E2m that is sadly never to be recovered.
In truth, the police have finally woken up from their slumber and have managed to make a breakthrough in this case, albeit belatedly. The police crackdown on the scammers has once more given us hope on the police and their ability to bring to book criminals and gangs that have been a menace to this society.
Given that the scammers were targeting the vulnerable of our society, there was a feeling among members of the public that this crime was not prioritised, because it did not affect the high and mighty of our politicians.
There is, too, the argument that this is the same thing with those who lost out when Ecsponent collapsed, with the people’s E340m investment.
That there is no serious and meaningful action taken against those responsible also points to the dismal failure to tackle corruption if not just focusing on the small fish when dealing with crime.
The notion that the country is going to arrest the big fish of corruption and crime has long been dismissed with contempt by many who believe that there is no political will to do so.
It is without doubt, however, that the national commissioner of police is doing a brilliant job in prioritising the scammers, who have caused so much pain and suffering to the people. It has been clear that the scammers were being left to rob us at will and were becoming a law unto themselves.
For me, the point is there to be made that perhaps in tackling crime and corruption, we need to start somewhere – and then perhaps the bo-bhabuli will follow once we have cleaned the streets and there is no place to hide for the petty crimes.
The reality of it all of course is that corruption is rife in this country and we need a committed police service to deal with, which will help us when the Anti-Corruption commission itself fails to rise above its own internal politics.
However, the NatCom needs to rethink his campaign on drink-driving, which might do more harm to the police service than good. I know, I am the last person to defend drink-driving, but there is in my opinion a better way to deal with drink-driving than using the stick – which as any parent will tell you, isn’t always going to give you the desired results.
The way this country is dealing with this issue of drink-driving shows an endemic problem of solving our challenges – which is resorting to violence, if not just thinking that a stiff fine will discourage anyone from getting behind the wheel!
We all know that has been known to fail, and it is an archaic way of dealing with this. Those who have thought of smarter ways – and positive discipline – have advanced in this type of issues, especially in countries that do not believe in corporal punishment.
If the police want to tackle drink-driving, then there is a better way to do, one of which is that we need to build a society that understands why certain things are wrong and taking responsibility for their action.
Oh, and we do have a serious mental health issue in this country – and the number of suicides and gender-based violence cases point to a society that is grappling with too much.
The whole ec-system of the drink-driving system can’t therefore be the way to deal with such an issue, except to say, promote safe drinking and punish a drink-driver who may very well have caused an accident.
This country is in short supply of good leaders who promote good values. We have enough who want to scream and shout and threaten and then bully their way through.
That is why Manoma Masango can’t be that man. He is too nice a man to bring strategies of the last century to work in today’s society.
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