Maxy swindled P70, 000

A local artiste Olebile Sedumedi aka ‘Maxy’ has accused a conman who swindled her P69 000 of turning her into a destitute. Giving evidence before Magistrate Oahile Mokibe at Village magistrate’s court, Maxy, who is among 16 people who were swindled money amounting to more than P500 000, said the conman had made her poor. David Othusitse Tshesebe is accused of obtaining over half a million pula fraudulently from different people and at different dates in 2009 by pretending that he was going to buy them cars in Durban. Maxy told court she became the victim of the scam after another artist, Odirile ‘Vee’ Sento told her about Tshesebe. She said she believed that Tshesebe was a trustworthy person since Sento had informed her that he (Tshesebe) had bought him a red Mini Cooper in Durban. She said she was convinced when Sento told her that Tshesebe could deliver the car in two weeks’ time. Further, other artists considered Tshesebe a trustworthy dealer, so she engaged him.

However, after giving Tshesebe the money to buy her a kombi that she wanted to use in her music tours, the accused never came back to deliver. She said she made several attempts to contact Tshesebe but that he told her different stories. At first she said she gave Tshesebe P20 000 to buy the 16-seater kombi. “The two weeks that we had agreed on passed without him showing up. When I reached him through the phone he informed me that a garage where he bought the kombi was gutted down by fire in South Africa. He also claimed that the garage owners were saying that they were not going to allow cars to be taken out until the insurance company pays the garage,” added Sedumedi. When she enquired as to what was going to happen because she had given him the money, she said Tshesebe came up withy another story. He said Botswana Unified Revenue Services (BURS) had impounded the vehicle because he had failed to pay tax. She said that she believed Tshesebe because she never suspected him to be a conman. Desperate for a kombi to use in her tours, she says Tshesebe hoodwinked her again. He promised her that he has found a new 16-seater Toyota kombi valued over P80 000. Tshesebe promised to negotiate for her to buy it at P49 000. She then gave him the money after she went with the accused at Marala Garage where he showed him the kombi. But after taking the money, she said Tshesebe vanished forever.

Sedumedi said that she made several attempts to contact Tshesebe who was unable to give a satisfactory answer as to why he was not delivering the kombi after she had given him the money. Maxy says finally she reported the matter to the police when she realized she was not the only one that had been conned. Other witnesses who were also allegedly swindled thousands of pulas also gave evidence before magistrate Mokibe. Tshesebe was given the opportunity to cross-examine Sedumedi, but the artiste responded angrily that she wanted her money. Tshesebe told court he would not ask any further questions because it was like he was fuelling confrontation between him and her. The case continues at the end of the month.