gwamanda denies fraud charges claims political motives

Gwamanda Denies Fraud Charges, Claims Political Motives

Former Johannesburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda maintains his innocence, saying the fraud charges against him are malicious and political.

Gwamanda stands accused of defrauding some Soweto residents in an alleged funeral policy scheme that ran between 2011 and 2012 through his then-company Ithemba lama Afrika.

He appeared briefly in the Protea Magistrates Court in Soweto on Tuesday.

Kabelo Gwamanda and his co-accused Mduduzi Zondo were back in the dock. The pair allegedly left residents who invested in the Ithemba lama Afrika funeral scheme high and dry when they failed to pay back their investments.

"It is people who were part of the business at that time and what I have noticed is that some of them have benefited through funerals, either for neighbors, for their family members or someone closely related to them several of those people who are on that witness list and there is proof to that effect so I was myself shocked to find out that these are people from my community that I worked with."