Durban — The World Housing Fund (WHF) founder Dr Ivan Howard Louw has accused gangsters from Wentworth, south of Durban, of hijacking his scheme for their benefit.
He was reacting to an article published by the Daily News on Thursday where many people accused him and a pastor based in Wentworth of scamming them of millions of rands through the Fund.
Louw said he has been aware for quite some time that there were certain ‘gangsters’ in the same township, or around Durban, who had hijacked his scheme, taking money from the people using the WHF name but pocketing the money for themselves.
“I am not hiding and have not run away. I am the founder of the WHF and we are continuing with the people but I am aware that certain people in Durban who, working with my former right-hand man, decided to turn against me and tarnish my name amongst the members of my Fund,” said Louw.
Mentioning his former right-hand man by name, Louw said the man is from Khayelitsha in Cape Town but has since discovered that he was a Cameroon national using a fraudulent South African ID.
He said it was the man who was currently working with certain people in Durban, continuing to take money from people and promising them houses but not depositing monies to the WHF’s account.
He said when people demanded houses after paying, the group then blamed him (Louw), saying he was the one who had taken the money from them.
“Those people who are accusing me of scamming them have probably been scammed by those gangsters. We have been transparent in our programmes and have refunded about 20 people who said they wanted their money back. So, I challenge everyone who wants their money back to contact us and we will gladly pay them but they must produce proof of payment to our account. I bet you, many of them would come with slips showing different accounts,” said Louw.
He said that he opened a case against one man who was part of the group that was tarnishing his name and his mother produced a medical report that he was mentally disturbed.
Furthermore, Louw said the reason why they had not built the houses was because the same “crooks” who turned against him went to the funder and told him not to give him money because he would disappear.
He added that everything was now back on track and the first phase of the project would take place in Vanderbijlpark in Gauteng next month.
“You can hold me accountable for this, we are starting the first phase of the project next month in Vanderbijlpark, then we move to Cape Town before coming to Durban. We have secured a piece of land somewhere in Tongaat,” said Louw.
He confirmed that the pastor was his right-hand man in the WHF, adding that he (Louw) had done nothing wrong.
The Daily News reported on Thursday that a prominent Wentworth pastor is accused of being part of the World Housing Fund, a “dubious” organisation that has allegedly scammed people out of money with the promise of homes.
The report said that the pastor was allegedly the chief operating officer of the fund which he established with another pastor from Gauteng in 2018.
In a WhatsApp group created by the victims, they claim to have been lured into the scheme and asked to pay R800 for registration. They were promised decent houses, but not one member had received a house to date.
The victims have resorted to demanding their money back from the administrators of the fund which they believe have scammed people from across South Africa.
A victim, from Wentworth, estimated that the fund had scammed about 20 000 people, and pocketed an estimated R20 million.
The Wentworth pastor was first contacted on Wednesday and has been promising to revert with comment.
On Thursday, again he sent a message apologising, saying his Wednesday had been hectic, however by the time of publishing on Thursday he had not commented.
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Daily News