A 45-year-old Elim lady received the shock of her life when thousands of rands were withdrawn from her bank account without her knowledge on 10 July.

At 09:54, Ms Hleziphi Loret Mkhari was sitting in the gallery at the Louis Trichardt Magistrate's Court when she received a string of SMSes notifying her of a R399.80 food purchase at KFC in Tzaneen, some 107 km away. As if that was not enough, shortly thereafter, a second SMS message informed her about a R2 000 transaction which had just been made at an ATM.

“I almost screamed at the top of my voice, which would have disturbed the proceedings as well,” said Mkhari. “Seeing my hard-earned money disappear like that was not anything I had expected to see happen. I had my bank card with me.”

She adds that she last made a withdrawal of R500 at 15:45 at Elim only a day before. She maintains that since she started using her Standard Bank account, she was never able to swipe the card when making purchases. “I am still shocked and surprised at how somebody else could buy things using my account while my card could never be swiped,” she complained.

Mkhari then rushed to the nearest Standard Bank branch in Makhado and reported the case. According to Mkhari, they immediately blocked her account and promised to investigate the matter. “They said they would get back to me after three days,” she said.

Standard Bank's media liaison officer, Kershia Singh, confirmed that they were investigating Ms Mkhari's case. “In the meanwhile, Ms Mkhari's bank card has been cancelled and a new one was issued to her,” Singh said. “The investigations should be complete within five working days.”

When Ms Mkhari was contacted on Tuesday (23rd) she said that Standard Bank had promised to refund her within eight hours.