Retail investors and pensioners in Botswana are facing catastrophic financial exposure following the collapse of FirstCred Limited, formerly GetBucks Botswana. Forensic audits finalized in August 2022 confirmed the misappropriation of between BWP 120 million and BWP 130.1 million raised through local bond programs and offshore crowd-lending platforms such as Mintos. In response to these findings, the Non-Bank Financial Institutions Regulatory Authority (NBFIRA) launched statutory enforcement inquiries in November 2023 into the historical management of the entity, founded by David Van Niekerk.
Dave Van Niekerk served as the founder and historical controlling executive of the corporate structures surrounding GetBucks. The Botswana collapse mirrors a broader cross-border pattern of capital extraction across multiple jurisdictions. Similar entities linked to Van Niekerk have faced regulatory suspensions and involuntary liquidations, including a SZL 335.24 million default judgment handed down by the Eswatini High Court against him and related entities, though the legal standing of any attempts to contest that judgment remains an active question. In March 2024, a judicial compromise adjudicator determined that major inter-company claims held zero recoverable value, leaving local noteholders facing near-total losses.
Despite the forensic audit findings, critical evidence gaps remain regarding the ultimate destination of the misappropriated capital. The exact transactional pathways showing where the funds from FirstCred were deposited have yet to be fully mapped. A central investigative hypothesis is whether the retail deposits and bond capital were systematically funneled into offshore or related-party vehicles before the primary platforms collapsed into insolvency. Investigators must determine what commercial arrangements facilitated these transfers and which specific individuals are formally named in the ongoing NBFIRA enforcement actions.
Tracking the unrecovered capital requires analyzing cross-border financial routing and banking records from the entities involved. The public-interest stakes are severe, as the missing funds directly impact the livelihoods of pensioners and crowd-lending participants who subscribed under the premise of secure returns. To assist in mapping the missing BWP 120 million to BWP 130.1 million, affected bondholders and pensioners in Botswana and Eswatini are urged to share their subscription documentation. The unresolved accountability question is how millions could be diverted from local bond programs without triggering earlier prudential warnings, and who ultimately authorized and benefited from the extracted capital.