THEY paid towards groceries, meat hampers and other household supplies, trusting that a Christmas stokvel would deliver what it promised.
Instead, Free State residents were left without the goods or financial benefits they had contributed towards – and R825 560 had been taken.
Now the man behind the scheme, 31-year-old Lebohang Mokatedi, has been sentenced to an effective 10 years in prison by the Bloemfontein Regional Court.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), the operation drew contributions from people in Bloemfontein, Botshabelo, Soutpan, Thaba Nchu, Hobhouse, Dewetsdorp, Excelsior and surrounding communities.
Between January 2024 and January 2025, Mokatedi used social media and word of mouth to promote his company, Lebohang Society and Financial Credit Service (Pty) Ltd, as a legitimate financial services and stokvel business.
The offers covered everyday household needs as well as festive-season extras: groceries, meat and liquor hampers, cleaning products and promised investment returns.
Members handed over their money believing it would be used for those purposes.
The promised goods and benefits never materialised.
The case exposed an abuse of a savings tradition built on community trust.
Stokvels help households pool contributions, prepare for major expenses and stretch their resources, with Christmas grocery schemes offering a way to put food and other essentials aside for the festive season.
In this case, that trust became the means through which contributors lost their money.
Investigators established that Mokatedi’s business was not authorised to provide financial services, operate as a bank, accept deposits as a banking business or trade in liquor, the NPA said.
Money paid into the scheme was subsequently used in transactions that included cash withdrawals and payments for goods, services and living expenses.
According to the prosecution, the handling of those funds concealed or disguised their nature, source, movement or ownership, forming the basis of the money-laundering charge.
Mokatedi and his company were convicted on 8 October 2026 on 1 407 counts spanning cyber fraud, unlawful financial services, unregistered banking activities, money laundering, unlawful liquor trading, tax offences and reckless conduct under the Companies Act.
The charges included 467 counts each of cyber fraud, unlawfully acting as a financial services provider and conducting the business of a bank without registration.
During sentencing proceedings, prosecutor Advocate Tammeryn McPherson argued that Mokatedi had exploited people who entrusted him with their hard-earned money in anticipation of the promised benefits.
The State asked for a sentence that reflected the scale and impact of the offences and deterred similar schemes.
The court imposed 15 years’ imprisonment for the cyber fraud counts, suspending five years for five years on condition that Mokatedi is not convicted of fraud or the specified Cybercrimes Act offence committed during that period.
He also received prison terms of five years for unlawfully providing financial services, five years for conducting an unregistered banking business, seven years for money laundering, five years for unlawful liquor trading, two years for tax offences and three years for reckless conduct.
Those sentences will run concurrently with the cyber fraud sentence, leaving him with an effective 10-year prison term.
His company received a R1 million fine, wholly suspended for five years on condition that it is not convicted of cyber fraud or fraud during the suspension period.
Welcoming the outcome, the NPA said the damage caused by fraudulent stokvel schemes extended beyond the money lost – they undermined community trust and could leave families without resources they had worked hard to secure.
The authority urged residents to check the credentials of businesses offering regulated financial services before handing over money and to report suspected fraud to the relevant authorities.