Zola Mahobe

Zola Mahobe (1954 – December 17, 2013) was an South African businessman who is also noted for owning Mamelodi Sundowns from 1983 until his conviction in 1987, making it one of the best South African soccer clubs of all time. He was sentenced to 16 years in prison for embezlling over R18 million with his mistress, Snowy Moshoeshoe.^[1]

Early life and career

Mahobe was born in Sophiatown. He attended secondary school at Meadowlands High in Soweto. After matriculating at the age of 17 in 1971, he worked for an international company in Johannesburg for ten years. In 1981, he joined a computer company for just over a year and then, in 1983, started his computer company, Power Promotions. From that moment, his rise to the top was meteoric. Nobody had heard of Mahobe before 1983, and the next he became one of the most popular people in the country.^[2]

Lifestyle and fortunes

Mahobe flaunted his wealth at expensive restaurants, buying expensive cars especially BMW and Mercedes Benz, living in mansions, travelling overseas regularly and racehorses. Mahobe was married to Siza Mahobe and had two children, Mondli (b. 1976) and Beybey (b. 1985) but he was always accompanied by his mistress, Snowy Tebelo Moshoeshoe, a bank clerk who worked for the Standard Bank. Mahobe's also owned butcheries, bottle stores and a travel agency, all of which he ran from his offices in Eloff Street in Johannesburg. Mahobe said, “I have made a lot of ground in business because I don't hesitate when I want something,”. Mahobe was a very generous man, he treated his employees well and gave his friends well-to-do positions to run his business. His motto was: 'Let everybody be happy then the money will flow in.' Taking the whole Mamelodi Sundowns team on an all-expenses-paid trip with wives and girlfriends, a total of 53, to the 1986 FA Cup Final in London is a perfect example.^[3]

Mamelodi Sundowns

In 1985, Mahobe bought Mamelodi Sundowns at the age of 31 for R100 000. He determined to take the team to the top of the National Soccer League. He went on another spending spree for two years, spending over R2 000 000 on the club. He paid record fees for some top players in the country. His new signings included former Watford and Kaizer Chiefs striker Mike Mangena for R50 000 from Bush Bucks similar to Jairzinho to Kaizer Chiefs in 1975 for R70 000, Pitso Mosimane, Mike Mangena, Sam Kambule and Mark Anderson. Mamelodi Sundowns were a force to be reckoned with alongside Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates.^[4]

Investigation and imprisonment

After he bought a Mercedes Benz 500SEL in Germany in 1987 the transaction was to be audited by Snowy but she was on leave so an internal audit of Mahobe's accounts by his bank revealed the real nature of his fortune and Mahobe was finally sank. The audit on his account found that Moshoeshoe had been fraudulently passing credit transfer forms without substantiating cheques and depositing them into Mahobe's accounts, creating credit balances which were offset by a debit through inter-bank transactions. Moshoeshoe had transfered a total of R18 145 000, R7,7mil for her and R10,757mil for Zola. Snowy was convicted of 129 cases of fraud and sentenced to 10 years in prison. Mahobe's sentence was originally 29 years which was brought down to 16 years imprisonment after his arrest in Gaborone, Botswana after being a fugitive for nine months. Sundowns was first seized by his bank and was later bought by Solly and Abe Krok and the Tsichlas family.^[5]

Death

Zola Mahobe died on 17 December 2013, in the presence of his children and was laid to rest in a traditional Islamic burial.^[6]

References

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