Regulators fail the public

KLEUTERZONE: FSCA, CIPC, SARB ALL WANTING

- Ryk van Niekerk and Liesl Peyper

KleuterZone may not have been officially declared a Ponzi scheme by any court or regulator – yet – but make no mistake: it ticks every single box.

It promised extraordinarily high returns, relied on a steady flow of new investments to pay out earlier ones, and collapsed the moment the flow slowed.

It was a simplistic scheme, not even particularly sophisticated in its deception. And it is arguably the fastest Ponzi-style implosion South Africa has seen in years.

The real scandal, however, is not just the scheme itself – it's how quickly it unravelled under basic scrutiny and how our regulatory authorities failed to act when it mattered most.

Moneyweb began investigating KleuterZone after being contacted by concerned investors who were promised returns of up to 62.4% from what was presented as a national nursery school franchise.