Company 'defrauds' delegates of R1.2million
The National Planning Commission (NPC) has received several complaints from members of the public who signed up to attend a "National Development Plan Leadership Conference” that was to be held on June 13-14 in Durban which was organised by Public Sector Business Network (PSBN).
According to the NPC there was no conference organised by them.
Dumisa Jele of the Ministry for National Planning said, “it has been brought to our attention that there was a conference organised by the PSBN, where government officials were due to attend.
“Our office did receive the invitation but no confirmation was sent to the PSBN from our side for our officials to partake in the conference. However they went on to use pictures of these officials on the invite as a drawcard, thus misleading delegates”.
The conference attracted 126 delegates, with a registration fee ranging from R8000 to R10000, which aimed at discussing issues such as eradicating poverty, sinking inequality by the year 2030, discussing the National Development Plan (NDP) and accelerate development, intensify democracy and build a more inclusive society as well as translate political emancipation into economic well being for all.
“Companies have called us asking for refunds. We would like to place on record that the NPC had nothing to do with the conference, and has no association with the Public Sector Business Network or any of its agents or proxies. According to the delegates, the organisers had disappeared:” Jele added.
The NDP is a public document and anyone who wished to host a conference to discuss it does not need the permission of the NPC. However, the use of the name of the Commission and photographs of its members without permission amounts to fraud. It is through such fraudulent behaviour that organisers of the conference attracted delegates to the 'scam' conference.
Lwazi Radebe, PSBN communications liaison blamed their sister company which he declined to name, for the misrepresentation. Radebe said: "The statement that our company is fraudulent is untrue, we do have contact details which our delegates have. Our blunder is that we put pictures of officials that had not been confirmed to attend. We then removed those pictures in the second invite."
Even though PSBN had removed the pictures in the second edition of the invite, none of the delegates had received the amended copy.
Delegates showed up for the conference on June 13, only to be greeted with a poor attendance - and no officials in sight as promised.
R1.2m later, attendees have not heard a word from the organizer regarding reimbursement or rescheduling.
“With regards to reimbursement or rescheduling, this is yet to be decided as this matter has been taken to our legal team,” said Radebe.
The NPC is deeply concerned that the so-called Public Sector Business Network misled people in this manner. We encourage victims of this scam to seek legal recourse, Jele concluded.
Email: kgafeg@timesmedia.co.za