Mandla Lamba, aka the ‘fake billionaire’, is back making headlines for all the wrong reasons. Over the weekend, reports of a new business venture by Mandla made the rounds, putting media personality Somizi at the helm in a new deal.
The launch of an electric car and tech company, Agilitee had South Africans up in arms about the venture which called for people to invest in shares from R5000 to R100 000 with a return of investment up to R1million.
Also read: Fake billionaire is back with Somizi at the helm in new deal
Now, two of the country’s competitive banks ABSA and Capitec have slammed Mandla’s claims that they are in partnership with him and his company.
Agilitee made use of both ABSA and Capitec’s company identity in marketing material at the launch which Somizi hosted.
Mandla said that Agilitee formed a partnership with Capitec, who will provide instalment credit for bike buyers, while Absa will fund franchisees of Agilitee.
Both ABSA and Capitec denied any involvement in Mandla’s business and confirmed this with Fin24, expressing that the notorious business made use of their brands without authorisation.
Mandla Lamba was arrested in 2011 and served time in prison on charges of fraud, theft and culpable homicide. At the time he claimed he made his claim to billionaire status through various mining investments and was in partnership with Cyril Ramaphosa.
He lied about his billionaire status and in 2015 Mandla was also arrested and convicted of culpable homicide after being involved in a car accident that took the lives of two people. He was then sentenced to 10 years in prison, according to Fin24.



