SELF-PROCLAIMED billionaire Mandla Lamba yesterday gave a brief sermon in the Orlando magistrate's court in Soweto shortly before the magistrate labelled him a liar

There was total silence in court 2 when Lamba, 26, spoke, moments before his bail application was heard.

"I'm innocent until I'm proven guilty. A child of God and whatever that is going... We go through persecutions in life. This is a training for me to another level of life where God is taking me," he said.

Lamba had told court in his application for bail that he had achieved much, including successfully establishing companies, one of which was a mining company worth R300 million.

But magistrate Anton le Roux denied him bail.

The State alleges that several years ago Lamba approached several taxi owners and promised to help them acquire new taxi vehicles, provided they each deposited R40,000 into his bank account.

After the money was deposited the victims never received their vehicles.

Lamba disappeared and the owners opened cases of fraud and theft in 2008. He absconded when the case was in its final stages.

In a separate case police say Lamba was involved in a freak car accident in Roodepoort, west of Johannesburg, in 2007, in which Wayne Greeff and his son Brandon, 8, were killed.

He was charged with culpable homicide but absconded when the case was about to be finalised.

He said he was also in the business of facilitating funding for foreign countries.

Lamba said he recently secured a R2,5 billion fund for which he was going to get 2,5 percent of the money.