Calvin Manika
BUSINESS at Number 1 bus terminus came to a standstill when a crowd of people gathered at St Ignatius Convent, Hwange threatening sisters who they accused of swindling them in a botched pyramid money scheme.
Police picked four suspects for interviews.
Vaida Mudenda of St Ignatius Convent, Elezia Tshuma and Patricia Tshuma, of Lwendulu village, Hwange and Leadlove Muleya, of Tshongogwe Convent, are accused of swindling people of their hard earned cash.
The Zambezi Times learnt that sometime in January 2021 Vaida Mudenda opened a money spinning pyramid code named ‘FLOWER’ in which she recruited Hwange residents to contribute United States dollars.
Under the scheme, the suspected promised the recruited members to contribute a certain amount of money which will increase within a week provided one individual also recruits two other members to join by contributing the same amount to the group administration. As a result, the recruitment process attracted many unsuspecting people who later turned out to be victims of the scam.
Sources who spoke to this publication said Vaida Mudenda divided the group into four, while also incorporating her friends.
Zambezi Times established that the problem arose when group numbers started swelling resulting in some members withdrawing from the scheme.
However, on March 5, information filtered that the groups were bound to collapse and due to panic, the contributors besieged St Ignatius Roman Catholic Church to have refunds of their money.
The two sisters and other two accused told the police that it was a voluntary money spinning programme that was well spelt to all members.
In a surprise turn of events, none of the victims wanted the matter to be taken to police supposedly due to the fear of losing their monies.
The Zambezi Times understands that they all refused to have their statements recorded by police indicating that they would solve their issue with the sisters.
By the time the pyramid collapsed it has a swelling number of about six hundred members.
