By Everson Luhanga
The people know him as Dr Ncube or Doctor Chele, but he is suspected of being a fraudster, a swindler, and a con artist who has defrauded women in the health sector.
Ncube is allegedly a Facebook con artist who targets professional women. He has represented himself as a doctor and pharmacist, calling himself Dr Kingsley Chele and sometimes Dr KJ Ncube.
He is also an escape artist. Twice this year, according to police, he was overpowered police and escaped from custody.
The man presented himself as a teenager using a fraudulently acquired South African identity document.
Gauteng provincial police spokesperson Lieutenant-Colonel Mavela Masondo said the first case was reported in June. Ncube was first arrested by the police on 2 October on two cases of fraud that were registered in Sunnyside and Klipgat police stations in Pretoria.
When police took him to court on 4 October he escaped by running away from the officers who were escorting him.
“He asked to go to the toilet, but then, he ran out of the bathroom, pushed the officers aside and vanished into the bushes,” said Masondo.
With the help of his lawyer, he was re-arrested on the same night and detained at the Lyttelton Police Station. The case was postponed to 9 October.
On 11 October he escaped again, this time more successfully. It was only in the early hours of 16 October that he was rearrested in Vosloorus at his girlfriend’s place. The woman is also one of his alleged victims.
Ncube’s initial arrest came after he allegedly scammed a professional nurse he met on Facebook. The nurse who was working at a private hospital in Pretoria lost her car and over R300,000.
She reported the case at the Lyttelton Police Station in Tshwane. She had made several attempts to open the case at different police stations but police officers told her to sort things out with her alleged criminal boyfriend.
Fortunately, a friend advised her to see an investigating officer at Lyttelton Police Station. The cop took on the case and started digging.
Lt-Col Masondo said while the alleged con artist was in custody after his re-arrest, police officials took him to his house after obtaining an order to freeze his assets which were believed to be the proceeds of crime.
At that time, Ncube had already appeared in court several times. He had nearly R1.3 million in his bank account and drove the latest 2023 VW Golf GTI which he bought cash.
His ID book indicated that he was a 16-year-old boy. In a text exchange with the nurse in the early days of the meeting, Ncube told the woman that he was 35 years old.
His age, as a teenager, raised flags for the investigating officer. However, he was taken and remanded in a juvenile place of safety in Soshanguve.
He managed to escape when police were cataloguing his household items at his residence in Roodepoort.
“On 11 October, police took him from Soshanguve to Johannesburg in an unmarked police vehicle. As he was officially a minor he was not cuffed in terms of the Child Justice Act,” Masondo said.
Once again, Ncube requested to use the toilet and was escorted to the bathroom.
“Suddenly, he came running out like a bullet, bumped one officer out of the way, and ran into a congested traffic jam and then to a bridge where there are many trees. He vanished into the bushes,” said Masondo.
A second case of escape from lawful custody was again registered at the Honeydew Police Station.
Since then, he has been attending proceedings in the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court.
Part two on how Ncube faked his profession and his ID book as well as inventing a fake mother will be published soon.
Pictured above: Dr Ncube.
Image source: Supplied
