Langebaan ‘lawyer’ and second accused in court for fraud, years after client duping allegations first surfaced

11 Apr 2025

Nearly three years ago, Daily Maverick reported on Fred Enslin, who was under investigation for allegedly masquerading as a legal practitioner. Now Enslin, previously a plumbing company manager, has been arrested and this week appeared in a Northern Cape court with another accused.

Two accused have appeared in a Northern Cape court in a case that is now developing a few years after allegations surfaced that the law firm that they were involved in was unregistered and effectively fake.

Jacobus Frederik Enslin, also known as Fred Enslin, and Stephanie Olivier, appeared in the Olifantshoek Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, 10 April 2025.

The Northern Cape’s National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Mojalefa Senokoatsane confirmed this to Daily Maverick on Friday.

He said: “The accused are facing charges of fraud.”

The case against Enslin and Olivier was postponed to 22 April when a bail application may proceed in the Kathu Magistrate’s Court.

Enslin and Olivier

Daily Maverick previously reported that Enslin was the director of the firm Enslin and Olivier, which was founded in 2021 and based in the Western Cape town of Langebaan. (On Thursday, 10 April 2025, Daily Maverick did a company search on Enslin and Olivier and it showed that its status was listed as being under final liquidation.)

Allegations had surfaced that he was not a registered legal professional.

Read more: Long arm of the law reaches for Langebaan ‘lawyer’ who allegedly duped clients

Western Cape and Northern Cape police had been investigating Enslin.

Olivier was a founding director of Enslin and Olivier. She was initially arrested in another matter in November 2022.

Daily Maverick previously reported that it was understood she had been the accountant of Willah Mudolo, who is a co-accused in a case against self-styled “prophet” Shepherd Bushiri.

Her 2022 arrest was connected to a case involving fraud, theft and money laundering allegations linked to the Mudolo-Bushiri matter.

Read more: Accountant arrested in Shepherd Bushiri case also once linked to ‘dodgy’ plumber-turned-lawyer Langebaan saga

That case is still unfolding, with Bushiri fighting his extradition from Malawi to South Africa so that he can stand trial.

In the Enslin saga, Olivier previously distanced herself from him, saying in a Facebobok post: “I was the Accountant of Enslin and Olivier Incorporated, and resigned as a director, shortly after I became aware of the allegations against Mr. Enslin…

“I categorically state that neither I nor my business were aware of the alleged misrepresentations made by Mr. Enslin.”

Daily Maverick initially reported on Enslin, as well as Olivier, in 2022.

‘Religious robe’

That year, when checking if Enslin or his firm were registered with South Africa’s Legal Practice Council, its spokesperson told Daily Maverick that there were no records of them being registered there.

During that same year, 2022, a notice of motion by a mining machinery company to apply for Enslin and Olivier Incorporated to be finally or provisionally liquidated was filed in the Western Cape Division of the High Court.

According to a founding court affidavit in that matter, one of the grounds on which the application was initiated was because Enslin, “acting under the name and style of (Enslin and Olivier Incorporated), is conducting unlawful practices”.

Earlier in 2022, in the Gauteng Division of the High Court, the mining machinery company pressed ahead with a similar liquidation application relating to another of Enslin’s companies, JF Enslin Legal Services (PTY) Ltd, with an address in Pretoria.

An affidavit in that matter said that in 2021 Enslin “orchestrated a virtual hearing that lasted for nine days”, during which he was the only person visible on screen to a client.

It said this client photographed Enslin “in his court attire and robe”, but an attorney later pointed out this garment was not of a type normally worn by legal practitioners and appeared to be a religious item purchased online.

Plumbing past

In 2022 Chad Thomas, a financial and organised crime investigator at IRS Forensic Investigations, told Daily Maverick that an attorney representing several complainants who paid Enslin legal fees had appointed IRS to look into the matter.

Meanwhile, online searches had showed that Enslin was previously the contact person and manager at a South African company named Kakaboy Plumbing and Electrical that offered nationwide services and was established in 2005.

And Thomas had also pointed out that one of Enslin’s “law firms” was named “KKB Law Group”, which could be an abbreviation of Kakaboy.

When reporting on Enslin in 2022, Daily Maverick made several attempts to get comment from him.

Enslin eventually sent a response saying: “He/She’ who alleges must proof’ so until no court of law pronounces my guilt on any of these allegations go f.... yourself and I will see you in court for defamation if you continue publishing anything about me that is not currently sub judice or in a court awaiting trial.” [sic] DM

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South Africa

Enslin and Olivier

‘Religious robe’

Plumbing past