Nopinky Mdleleni, a revered Apostle bishop who also goes by the name ‘Pinky Likhanyise Hewu’, is at the centre of an alleged scam that left a family reeling over the loss of R100 000.
How Nopinky Mdleleni allegedly scammed R100 000 from a family
Speaking exclusively to Swisher Post, a woman who wished to remain anonymous revealed how she and her husband were allegedly swindled out of R100 000 by Mdleleni.
According to the anonymous source, Mdleleni was more than an acquaintance in Christ. She was a crucial cog in the couple’s aluminium pots supply business.
Somewhere along the line, supply could not meet demand and the once revenue-bearing business came to a screeching halt. A definitive solution was to purchase a vehicle with enough mileage to sustain frequent round trips to Cape Town and other areas in South Africa.
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When Mdleleni was presented with this idea, she allegedly pounced at the opportunity to play middleman in the sale of the vehicle.
While the woman and her husband welcomed Mdleleni’s helping hand, they had already recruited the assistance of a family friend, who was proactive enough to source a preowned bakkie for sale at a WeBuyCars branch in Cape Town.
The woman and her husband travelled from rural Eastern Cape to the Mother City to commission the sale but ran into hurdles over the vehicle’s actual price, and this stumbling block presented Mdleleni with the perfect opportunity to proverbially take the bull by the horns.
According to the woman, Mdleleni revealed she had a contact in Springbok, Northern Cape, with a preowned 2015 Toyota Hilux Double Cab 4×4 they could purchase below market, thanks to her affiliation with the seller, a gentleman named Johan Paxton.
For context, this Hilux model generally carries a minimum preowned price tag of R300 000 for a 230 000km-mileage model in the resale market. However, by the grace of Bishop Mdleleni’s connections, the couple would seal the purchase for an astonishing R100 000.
An agreement was allegedly reached with Mdleleni to finalise the purchase and kickstart a monthly payment plan for R20 000 in auxiliary costs incurred over and above the initial vehicle sale price.
On Wednesday, 18 October 2023, the couple transferred R100 000 into Mdleleni’s bank account, expecting to have the vehicle shipped to Cape Town by Friday, 20 October 2023.
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Later that evening, Mdleleni forwarded the woman screenshots of what she claimed was proof of payment totalling R120 000 to Paxton, as well as a Google Search image of the vehicle.
Immediately, the woman smelled a rat. Something was amiss. Enlisting the assistance of her savvy nephews, the woman soon determined that not only was the ‘proof of payment’ a smoke screen, but the vehicle pictured above was actually priced at R339 900 by a seller based in Pretoria and sold shortly after it was listed in July 2020.
Friday came and went without the vehicle and despite Mdleleni’s evolving narratives about supposed delays in processing the sale, the woman still held on to the dwindling hope that the Apostle bishop would deliver on her promise.
Of course, two weeks later, and the vehicle has yet to surface. More shocking, it’s said Mdleleni has since taken on an aggressive tone when interrogated about the R100 000 transfer.
According to the woman, Mdleleni has categorically refused to return the money, claiming she is, in fact, owed for an inconvenience in a previous pots deal.
The woman confirmed to Swisher Post that the amount in question was a little over R7 000, nowhere close to the lumpsum the bishop received for the vehicle.
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Nopinky Mdleleni’s streak of fraud cases
Digging into Mdleleni’s background turned up a crucial red flag her past victims grossly overlooked. The 47-year-old woman is no stranger to controversy, let alone a checkered history with the law.
In 2016, Mdleleni was embroiled in a fraud case, where she, once again, abused her position of esteem in religious circles and conned several women, including Hloni Tyali, who was scammed out of R80 000.
At the time, community newspaper City Vision reported that Tyali had approached Mdleleni for assistance in purchasing a house.
“I sold my house in Mfuleni and told her I was looking to buy another one. She immedialy told me that she knew of a couple that were relocating overseas,” Tyali said.
Mdleleni played the middleman role in the supposed sale and received R80 000 from Tyali, who wholeheartedly believed she was at the mercy of a respected bishop.
However, months later, Tyali learned the hard way that she was, in fact, dealing with the Devil’s advocate.
“I was in tears because I knew my money had gone,” Tyali recalled at the time,
An exhaustive list stretches longer by the day, as more victims claiming they were swindled by Mdleleni surface.
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In the case of the R100 000 vehicle sale, Mdleleni is currently the subject of a criminal investigation. A case of fraud has been registered with the police, who were actively seeking the Apostle bishop’s physical address when this article was published.
At least two addresses are known to Swisher Post, based on our surface-level research.
One address located in Khayelitsha, Mdleleni uses as a business location for her God Is Able Healing Ministries, a shell non-profit she registered in 2014, and listed her two sons, aged 23 and 20 respectively, as co-directors.
The second address points to a location in Milnerton and is linked to two businesses, all of which are in the process of deregistration due to non-compliance in annual returns since they were launched in 2019.
Despite our valiant attempts, we were unable to get comment from Mdleleni on the mounting allegations when this article was published.
This is a developing story.