Mining tycoon a lying fake
2010-11-07 13:00
The man labelled as South Africa’s youngest billionaire and a mining tycoon is nothing but a conman who is wanted by the police for theft and culpable homicide.
The 25-year-old “Dr” Mandla Lamba, who claims to own gold, diamond and manganese mines in South Africa, Zambia and Congo-Brazzaville, begged City Press this week not to expose his lies and said he “could work something out” with this journalist.
City Press has established that, besides the criminal charges he faces, his business deals are bogus, his qualifications are suspect and his life story is nothing but a web of lies.
Lamba has been billed over the past year as one of South Africa’s rising young entrepreneurs. He drives flashy sports convertibles, reportedly spends R50?000 a night at Johannesburg’s trendiest night spots, employs three bodyguards and boasts that he “lives lavishly, very corporately”.
Newspaper articles describe him as a “deeply spiritual”, God-fearing philanthropist, and he has even made it on to credible online business sites such as Mining Weekly and Bloomberg.
At an interview this week, Lamba claimed that he and his company, East American Resources (EAR), were worth “billions”. “A billionaire I am for sure,” he proclaimed. “I like to live a good life.”
He also claimed that business magnate and ANC heavyweight Cyril Ramaphosa and his wife, Dr Tshepo Motsepe, were his “mentors, counsellors and parental guiders”.
Lamba also claims that Investec Bank offered him a directorship in 2008, but he turned it down because he was “too busy”. The bank's spokesperson denied that Lamba had been offered a directorship.
City Press then confronted Lamba with his lies.
There are two warrants out for Lamba's arrest. He has been charged with culpable homicide for his involvement in the death of a person in 2007. The warrant says the victim was “bumped over by a car”. He is also wanted for theft.
He never obtained a doctorate in business administration from Unisa, as his profile on a business networking site claims. The university doesn't have any record of him.
Lamba then claimed he had actually obtained a PhD in “business philosophy” from the University of Liverpool – at the age of 24. Liverpool had not commented by the time we went to press.
The Ramaphosas were this week outraged by Lamba's claims and said they did not know him at all. Dr Motsepe said Lamba had phoned her repeatedly but she told him she wasn’t interested in meeting him. She didn’t believe his business claims. Ramaphosa said he found Lamba’s claims laughable.
Before he ventured into mining, Lamba had a firm called Godforth Life Assurance, which, among other things, sold funeral policies and insurance to young people.
Godforth was never registered with the Financial Services Board, a crime punishable by a R1 million fine or 10 years’ imprisonment.
Godforth also did debt consolidation.
A former employee said he had been one of 20 salespeople working at the company’s Parktown offices. He said each member of the sales team was set a target of 40 new clients a month, each of whom would pay R750 for debt consolidation. Most team members had brought in 30 clients a month, generating R400 000 a month in cash.
But the former employee claimed that he and others were not paid for months – and that he did not witness a single client getting the service they had paid for.
In trying to prove that he was rich, Lamba claimed that:
»?EAR had just bought a 51% stake in Moussondji Gold in Congo-Brazzaville from Canadian mining giant Mexivada.
A spokesperson for Mexivada, Michael Stetzel, said that there was an initial deal, however, they investigated when no money was forthcoming and discovered that Lamba was a “fraud”. The deal was cancelled.
»?US “financial services provider Newton Partners” had invested R400?million in his recently acquired Mkuze gold mine in KwaZulu-Natal.
City Press couldn’t find any such company in America, but there is Newton Capital Partners in New York. Its advisory board member John Bartholdson said they had made no investment in EAR.
»?EAR “is acquiring” a 15% shareholding in Bauba Platinum, a listed company.
Bauba CEO Pine Pienaar said he had discussed this purchase with Lamba and told him it would cost EAR about R42?million, but no money had been forthcoming.
»?EAR has 1?400 workers at its Mkuze gold mine. However, there is no activity at the mine.
Lamba has two default judgments for debt, and records show that he has had seven residential addresses, and eight business and cellphone numbers, in two years.
His name also appears on a fraud database. Even the cell number on his current business card is wrong.
Lamba refused this week to admit or deny his spending habits in clubs and bars, or name any of the cars he drives. He said he employed bodyguards because someone had tried to hijack him.
“I love God with a passion. I’m born again, blood-washed and live a clean life.”
» ?Additional reporting by Anna-Maria Lombard, Julian Rademeyer and Andrew Trench
- City Press