Chilling text trail in tender-linked kidnap case

“I am going to Dubai soon for holiday back January tell me if u killed him.”

This is the text message allegedly sent by flamboyant Limpopo businessman Matome “Falaz” Sefalafala to an accomplice in a bizarre kidnapping case linked to a multimillion-rand tender racket.

The chilling SMS is among a series of messages that have helped police and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) piece together a case against Sefalafala and two alleged accomplices.

They are charged with the kidnapping of former Lepelle Northern Water Board acting CEO Ahuiwi Netshidaulu and extorting R2.9m from him. Text messages seen by the Sunday Times throw ominous light on the case, which was first reported by this newspaper in 2020.

As police investigated the case, it emerged that two officers from their own ranks allegedly played a leading role in the drama, which unfolded in November 2020.

The charge outlines how the implicated police officers provided the muscle and helped fabricate and execute an “arrest warrant”. One of the officers has since died. The other is charged alongside Sefalafala and former Lepelle CEO Phineas Legodi.

The charge sheet alleges that after Netshidaulu was ''arrested” he was taken to swanky restaurants and photographed with Sefalafala until the money had been paid. The restaurant setting was supposedly chosen to give the impression that the hostage was there of his own free will.

The two officers were allegedly paid by Sefalafala to kidnap Netshidaulu, who was refusing to pay an illegal R5m invoice.

This followed a 2019 Limpopo High Court decision to set aside a R45m tender awarded to Sefalafala's company, Falaz, for hazardous waste removal due to concerns over the cost and the manner in which the tender had been awarded. Legodi was the CEO and accounting officer of the Lepelle Northern Water Board when the contract was awarded.

The charge outlines how police officers provided the muscle and helped fabricate and execute an 'arrest warrant'

As a result, Falaz was not entitled to payment of the R12.4m in invoices the company had submitted to Lepelle, R5.6m of which was paid out by the then CFO, Bongi Mathevula, in July without the authority of the board and without consulting with Netshidaulu.

Const David Mkhabela, attached to Silverton police station, and Sgt Gideon Matlala. attached to Mamelodi police station, together with a group of unknown men, were allegedly promised more than R350,000 by Sefalafala to abduct Netshidaulu in November 2020 in an attempt to force him to authorise the payment.

Matlala, Sefalafala and Legodi will stand trial next month for the kidnapping. Mkhabela died in October 2021, several months after he disappeared. Police were unable to provide details surrounding his death.

A police report of Sefalafala’s cellphone records, seen by the Sunday Times after his arrest in December 2020, reveals chilling details about a fallout between Sefalafala and the unknown person or people who seemingly carried out the abduction.

Threats of violence and killing were sent to Sefalafala from two unregistered cellphone numbers, with the sender/s demanding their share of R350,000 for carrying out the abduction. 

The individual/s threaten to kill Mkhabela, who appears to have been the go-between.

Retrieved text messages between Sefalafala and a person using the unregistered cellphone number 079442**** on December 1 say:

“Retlo lata Mkhabela ka ma..pa [We are going to f**k up Mkhabela]. We are not fools, trust me.”

Sefalafala responds: “Good luck ... You’ll update me when I am back. I am going to Dubai soon for holiday back January tell me if u killed him”. 

079442****: “Ok no one will kill him but he will feel it we don’t have time for those games ... He must continue protecting you. We will see who is gonna protect him.”

Sefalafala did not respond to detailed questions sent to him by the Sunday Times about the conversations, but denied any wrongdoing.

“I have not kidnapped anyone in my entire life. This is calculated to damage my name and reputation. I have taken measures to clear my name including instituting a civil claim for damages. We must respect the court processes and wait for the outcomes ... And I’m suing Lepelle water for tarnishing my name and my brand,” he said.

But the NPA says Sefalafala has a case to answer because he sent threatening messages to Netshidaulu. It said that when Netshidaulu was arrested “the police officers and [Sefalafala] took the complainant to different places, instructing him to call the CFO to pay [Sefalafala] outstanding amounts for the service rendered ... It is clear that the said arrest was made only to threaten and induce the complainant to pay [Sefalafala] the outstanding payment.”

Sefalafala’s cellphone records show that at 5am on October 31 — just weeks before the “arrest” — he started sending Netshidaulu a barrage of threatening text messages. 

“If I get a call from CFO telling [me] she will pay me then I’m out of your life but if not we go all out ... [R]5-million is fokol i’ll make it else where as well but you’ll be at home ... Don’t make me this angry telling me that you will never pay me. I’m not your boy ... tell any one that i’m not scared of anyone they are not my gods.”

Netshidaulu responds that he is not going to discuss work-related issues on text messages, which angers Sefalafala further.

An investigation by the police cybercrime unit found text messages between Sefalafala and Mkhabela, who received payments amounting to R48,000. 

Three days before the alleged kidnapping, Mkhabela sent Sefalafala the case number 275/2020, confirming that he had opened a case of extortion on behalf of Sefalafala against Netshidaulu, which gave him and Matlala the right to travel to Polokwane to “arrest” him.

Sefalafala’s text records show that between November 11 and 17, he paid Mkhabela R48,000 in several payments ranging between R2,000 and R22,000.

The day after the alleged kidnapping, Mkhabela sent a frantic text message to Sefalafala that police were looking into them. “It’s urgent we just got a phone call from the police ... I think when you meet the investigation officer you need to tell him the story and you need to show him that video... please tell him that no one must be charged because if they can charge us then it’s gonna be a problem. Maybe he can just take our statement and send it to the prosecutor to be [closed],” said Mkhabela. 

What followed in the next days and weeks were text messages to Sefalafala from an unregistered number in which a person, who seemed to know about the alleged kidnapping and was working with Mkhabela, demanded R350,000. 

“Matome [Sefalafala] renyaka chelete ya rena R350,000 re berekile wena le Mkhabela le tho re kwatisha [we want our money, you and Mkhabela are going to make us angry] before we do something bad to Mkhabela re lapishetse ke di [we are tired of your] empty promises tlogelang go raloka ka rena [please stop playing games with us] please we want our money finish n klaar ... ,” said an unknown person in the text message. 

A defiant Sefalafala responds: “U even have guards [guts] to say R350,000 while you milked me more than 50,000 already and I haven’t achieved fokol from this but lost my money don’t tell me nonsense and you are disturbing me ... Are you on drugs we busy fighting a battle here were (sic) I am implicated in a kidnapping case and my business accounts are frozen go and call anyone and ask and stop fighting for stupid things I have real big issues that can affect the future of my company.”

The unknown person then responds: “I am not on drugs and we are aware of the case even Mkhabela is not sleep [sleeping]”.

The Sunday Times broke the story in 2020, detailing how Netshidaulu was allegedly kidnapped on November 18 and forced to pay R2.9m to Sefalafala’s company Falaz General Trading. 

Netshidaulu opened a case at Polokwane police station the following day, saying in an affidavit he had been “arrested” by two police officers from Silverton, Pretoria who told him it was in connection with an extortion complaint against him by Sefalafala.

Instead of taking him to a police station, he said the officers called Sefalafala and set up a meeting at a Caltex garage on the N1 outside Polokwane. He said he was handcuffed and his cellphones taken. 

The officers controlled all his calls, he said. “He [Sefalafala] said I am playing games with him. He said no-one has a problem to pay but it's only me who seems not willing to pay him,” said Netshidaulu in the affidavit. He said he had been taken to Tiveka Game Lodge, 30km from Polokwane, and told to call the Lepelle CFO and order her to pay an invoice of R5.8m for work done by Sefalafala's company, or face arrest.

Netshidaulu initially refused but was taken to a secluded area where he agreed to pay because he feared for his life. He gave instructions for R2.9m to be paid. He was told he would not be released until the payment had been cleared. 

The group then drove for over two hours to a restaurant in Midrand to get food and drinks. The payment reflected after midnight, after which Netshidaulu was released and took an Uber back to Polokwane.

Sefalafala’s cellphone records show that on the day he sent Mkhabela text messages saying: “Come cuff him ... Come take phones let’s move”. 

The cellphone records show that Sefalafala spent R620 at Tiveka Game Lodge, R3,673 at Cubana in Midrand on November 18 and that an amount of R2.9m was paid into his business account with the reference Lepelle Northern Wa. 

NPA Limpopo spokesperson Mashudu Malabi-Dzhangi said a pretrial hearing would be held on March 20. Sefalafala, Legodi and Matlala are charged with extortion and kidnapping.

The other accused in the case of tender fraud and corruption, charged together with Sefalafala and Legodi, are Gumani Gangashe, Mpho Chokolo, Vusi Mhlongo and former Lepelle chair of the bid evaluation committee Ngwako Micheal Moseamedi.