A closed fraud case involving allegations of misleading advertising against government-linked Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator is now being probed by the office of the Gauteng provincial police commissioner after the Hawks redirected a complaint from a 30-year-old man who refused a R15 000 “without prejudice” settlement to make the matter disappear.
The review into how the case was handled began last week when police from Johannesburg’s Jeppe station contacted the complainant for an interview, and requested that he submit five examples of his signatures from different institutions for testing purposes. The probe renews scrutiny of a matter that officials at
Harambee and the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA) had considered settled after prosecutors last year declined to prosecute due to insufficient evidence.
The complainant, William Bene, is a young resident of the Etwatwa informal settlement in Ekurhuleni, whose hustle transporting groceries and parcels by bicycle during the Covid-19 lockdown was featured in youth development campaigns as a government-backed empowerment success story.
In the closed case docket, Bene told police that his personal information had been used without consent and that a waiver authorising use of his story was not signed in his handwriting. He also claims he was offered R15 000 to drop the matter, but he refused.
Sunday World has seen communication from a mediator in which the payment proposal was discussed.
“Please note that this informal offer is without prejudice and should not in any way be construed as a formal proposal from Harambee,” the mediator wrote on October 30, 2023.
“The offer is tabled in an endeavour to reach an amicable settlement. They emphasised that this is not an admission of guilt whatsoever. A one-off proposal of R15 000 is being proposed. Please apply your mind accordingly and revert by 16h00 today.”
NYDA chairperson Dr Sunshine Yende told the Gauteng provincial legislature in October last year that Bene instead demanded R3-million each from Harambee and the NYDA, which relied on information from Harambee for the Bene story it published.
Records show Bene first encountered Harambee in 2019 while seeking employment through the organisation’s programme. Unable to secure work because of his credit record, he left. During the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020, he started a bicycle-delivery business, Bokamoso Bene Logistics, transporting groceries and parcels in his community.
In response to Sunday World, officials from both youth agencies maintained that Bene’s complaint should be dismissed.
Harambee’s lawyers described him as aggressive and threatening in his interactions with the organisation since the dispute began. The lawyers, who confirmed the mediation, said legal action against Bene was underway. “Mr Bene has been repeatedly engaging with certain members of the Harambee team, visiting the Harambee offices, and posting comments on social media regarding his concerns,” said lawyers from Power & Associates.
“This conduct has led to Harambee staff members being harassed, intimidated and left to feel unsafe.”
Addressing the dispute over consent, the lawyers said a Harambee manager, Thulisile Ndlovu, visited Bene in Etwatwa during lockdown in 2020.
Bene allegedly told Ndlovu he had started a bicycle business that was doing well, and Ndlovu asked to share the story with Harambee’s Tshepo1Million communications team.
“It appears that Mr Bene provided verbal consent and signed a waiver (which was not countersigned) in April 2020. He agreed to the use and publication of his story and image,” the lawyers said.
They added that Bene’s story and image were first published in 2020. According to the lawyers, Bene withdrew consent for use of his image in April 2023. Harambee met him on June 16 that year and agreed to remove the material from its social media platforms.
“Everything was removed on 12 July 2023, save for one image, which Harambee was later notified about and removed immediately,” they said.
In the decision to decline prosecution, police informed Bene that investigators had obtained statements from Ndlovu, Harambee chief information officer Hanlie de Bod and photographer Catherine Muller “stating that you asked them to take your pictures”.
In an affidavit, Muller said that during a photo shoot in 2019, Bene asked her to take pictures and video because he wanted to explain why he had left the Harambee programme.
She said she did not have a consent form available that day. Bene later signed a formal release during a separate filming session in 2020 for the Solidarity Fund, which was not affiliated with Harambee.
Muller told investigators she later provided Bene with a consent form covering both the Solidarity Fund footage and the earlier photos and video recorded during the Harambee assignment.
“I confirm that William Bene willingly signed the form in my presence,” Muller stated in the affidavit dated February 2024.
Harambee confirmed Bene participated in its job-seeker programme in 2019.
However, social media advertisements presenting Bene’s bicycle venture as a youth empowerment success included additional information claiming he registered with the Tshepo1Million initiative in 2015 and accessed entrepreneurship resources through the programme.
Harambee said records relating to the 2015 registration were held by the Gauteng provincial government.
However, provincial government spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga did not respond to questions sent two weeks ago.
Communication seen by Sunday World in Bene’s possession suggests the programme no longer exists.
The NYDA said it relied on information supplied by Harambee when it published its own social media post celebrating Bene’s story.
The post described how Bene began with a vegetable garden to support his family before identifying an opportunity when a friend borrowed his bicycle for deliveries.
“He now delivers hot kota or bunny chow for R5 using his bicycle,” the NDA said.
When asked whether Bene had been formally enrolled in any NYDA programme, the agency said it did not hold those records. The dispute resurfaced after Bene submitted a complaint to the Hawks.
In an email dated February 27, a Hawks official forwarded the complaint to the office of the Gauteng provincial police commissioner for attention.
On March 6, the provincial police office confirmed that the handling of the original case was under review.
“I am the investigation officer in your complaint against the SAPS,” wrote Lt-Col MA Meredith of SAPS Jeppe human resource management.
“Kindly indicate when you are available to meet at SAPS Jeppe so that we can investigate your complaint.”
