When the duly mandated banker of a non-profit company in South Africa (an “NPC”) recently found that his access to the bank accounts of the NPC had been blocked after illegal termination of his banking mandate, it opened a Pandora’s box.

The NPC, which is registered with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission of South Africa (CIPC) as St Barnabas Aid, was incorporated by the Barnabas founders in 2017 as a partner entity to undertake charitable work in South Africa. The Barnabas founders have served as directors of the NPC uninterruptedly from inception until recently when they were fraudulently removed.

Investigation has shown that the Barnabas founders were removed as directors of the NPC early in December 2025 through an elaborate web of deceit engineered by the same individuals who have been attempting to discredit the Barnabas founders with the Charities Commission for England and Wales.

The deceit, perpetrated over an extended period of time, commenced by the blocking of communication between the CIPC and the Barnabas founders, unbeknown to the CIPC who were unaware that their routine communications did not reach the Barnabas founders. In due course the CIPC was thus brought under the impression that the Barnabas founders were delinquent directors, which resulted in the CIPC commencing steps to deregister the CIPC.

The perpetrators of the deceit were directors of a USA company, known since 2022 as Nexcus International until it was recently renamed Barnabas Aid International (BAI), in August 2025 – the legal validity of the name change being open to question.

Soon thereafter directors of BAI attempted to coerce the directors of the South African non-profit company, St Barnabas Aid NPC, to resign as directors of that company, on the basis that they were supposedly delinquent directors. The directors who had founded St Barnabas Aid NPC were, however, not prepared to oblige them.

BAI, a USA company, has no legal right to exercise control over the South African non-profit company or interfere with its governance. The NPC is an independent legal entity in a different country. Although BAI has registered itself with Companies House in the UK as an overseas company “for charitable purposes’, it is not registered with the Charities Commission.

It must be stressed that notwithstanding the transparent stratagem of certain Nexcus International directors to rename the company Barnabas Aid International (BAI) recently, BAI is not the charity Barnabas Aid. It is also certainly not the apex “Barnabas” entity in the worldwide Barnabas network of charities, as it has held itself out to be.

It has now come to light that directors of Barnabas Aid International procured the illegal removal of the Barnabas founders as directors of the NPC on 3 December 2025 through nefarious means, and substituted themselves as directors of the NPC in the founders’ stead.

Since it has been effected by means of, inter alia, fraudulent use of the original directors’ email addresses and substituting other email addresses for them with the CIPC, it constitutes not only a case of ‘business fraud’ but also one of cyber identity theft.

The history of St Barnabas Aid NPC as recorded in the CIPC registry, including details of changes made over time, is a matter of public record that can be seen on the CIPC website with a free search.

A criminal charge has accordingly been laid with the SA Police arising from the events outlined above, and a case has been formally opened. This matter is now under investigation by the SA Police.

The founding directors of St Barnabas Aid NPC released this under legal advice, after fraud charges had been laid. Further inquiries can be directed to: StBA2017@mail.com”

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Majority of Christian charity’s staff resign amid ongoing dispute

From Civil Society

Most employees at Barnabas Aid have resigned amid a dispute with its linked international organisation and ongoing investigations, according to recently filed documents.

Barnabas Aid’s latest accounts state that “about three-quarters of the payroll” left the Christian charity between April 2024 and November last year.

Some 25 staff were employed by Barnabas Aid in the year ending 31 August 2024, before the departures, the report states.

The trustees criticised “obstruction and delays caused to the audit” by staff at Nexcus International, Barnabas Aid’s global wing, which has reportedly claimed the charity owes it £6.4m.

Their report alleges that Nexcus International has “day-to-day control” of Barnabas Aid’s finances, refusing access to its bank accounts and information about staff.

Nexcus International, which has since rebranded as Barnabas Aid International and is described as a “non-profit corporation in Virginia, USA”, said the report “contains a number of inaccurate or misleading statements”. Income decline Barnabas Aid’s income, most of which is from donations and legacies, declined from £19.5m in 2022-23 to £16.5m in 2023-24.

It reported a deficit of £297,000 for the year 2023-24, with its charitable expenditure standing at £16.6m. The report says a loss of income due to reputational damage and change of ethos and values were the “greatest risk facing the charity” since 23 April 2024. It adds that the “steady” loss of staff was compounded by dwindling “personal relationships with supporters” which were previously a “high priority” for the charity.

Despite the declines, the report says: “The trustees believe the statement of financial affairs shows a strong performance by Barnabas Aid in the context of a difficult economic environment.” The trustees claimed that the UK charity was unable to control its cash reserves, which were valued at £9.7m at the end of 2023-24, a decrease from £12.5m a year earlier.

Global organisation claims report inaccurate In September 2024, the Charity Commission launched a statutory inquiry into allegations of authorised payments to trustees and related parties at Barnabas Aid. A month later, it restricted Barnabas Aid’s ability to spend money, with any payment over £4,000 now requiring the regulator’s approval. Then in November 2024, two people were arrested as part of a police investigation into fraud and money laundering allegations at a linked “Barnabas family” charity. The following month, the commission announced it was investigating four “Barnabas family” charities – the Oxford Centre for Religion in Public Life plus the Wiltshire-based TBF Trust, Reconciliation Trust and Servants Fellowship International.

A commission spokesperson today said: “All the inquiries remain ongoing”. The report states that, since April 2024, Nexcus has “prevented the majority of the trustees from accessing the charity’s bank accounts”.

Trustees expressed concerns that “some funds donated to the charity have not been used by Nexcus for the purposes for which the donors gave them”. They also said that Nexcus International’s name change to Barnabas Aid International had caused confusion to the supporters of the charity “and possible inadvertent deflection of their giving”.

In response to the claims, a Barnabas Aid International spokesperson said: “Sadly, the trustees’ report contains a number of inaccurate or misleading statements by the trustees, which the leadership of Barnabas Aid [International] were not privy to before publication. “The role of the auditors is not to check the factual accuracy of every statement in the trustees’ report. “Their responsibility is limited to ensuring the information shared in the report is materially consistent with the financial statements.”

The spokesperson added that they were supporting the Charity Commission with its investigation. Contact us Civil Society Media Limited 15 Prescott Place London SW4 6BS United Kingdom Tel +44 (0)20 7819 1200 Fax +44 (0)20 7819 1210 newsdesk@civilsociety.co.uk info@civilsociety.co.uk Co. Reg: 2855714 VAT reg no: GB 629 3702 31 Statutory inquiry and police investigation ‘ongoing’ The trustees’ report states that the commission’s statutory inquiry has been damaging to the charity’s reputation.

A commission spokesperson confirmed that its inquiry was ongoing and would not comment on whether spending restrictions were still in place. The accounts state that the arrests made by Wiltshire Police involved a trustee and senior executive following an investigation “which commenced in April 2024 by a law firm, appointed by Nexcus International, which was not chosen or approved by the majority of the charity’s trustees”.

Wiltshire Police confirmed that the two people arrested in connection to fraud and money laundering at a “Barnabas family” charity have since been released under investigation.

This article was first published by Virtue Online on Feb 24, 2026. Read the original article here.