Johannesburg - A UK-based life coaching group that has been accused of abusing, exploiting and fleecing victims have confirmed their intention to launch offices in South Africa.
Lighthouse Global, a UK-based life coaching organisation which is run by several South Africans, made headlines globally last year after the organisation was accused of exploiting and holding their members “financially hostage”.
Its founder, South African businessman Paul Waugh, this week confirmed they would open offices in South Africa.
“Lighthouse Global may register a small presence in South Africa, among many other countries, and we are looking at various options around the world,” Waugh said.
“However, due to the malicious smear campaign against me personally and Lighthouse as a whole in the UK, we will not divulge any further details than this to protect ourselves and those we serve.
“We have always intended to have a presence in Southern and mid-Africa as part of our global expansion, and we are currently focused on our media company that aims to connect, serve and protect our Christian brothers and sisters in Christ worldwide.”
Last year, UK-based Daily Mail spoke to several former members who claimed Lighthouse “groomed” them with promises they would find personal fulfilment and a dream career through its up to R2 000 an-hour mentoring programmes.
But they say they ended up in thrall to its leader, Waugh, who lives in an estimated R40-million country estate on the edge of the Cotswold Hills and boasts of “numerous” celebrity friends and being “very connected” in government.
New recruits, often vulnerable because of divorce, depression or previous abuse, are assigned a mentor with whom it is claimed they are encouraged to share their “innermost secrets” in sessions which are recorded and stored by the group leaders.
It’s claimed that these members are later “pressured” into “investing” tens of thousands of pounds, often by taking loans which plunge them into debt, without any formal written financial agreement or receipt.
Some members asking for their money to be returned were also reminded their secrets had been recorded, making them feel threatened.
In one case, a mother says she re-mortgaged her family home to help raise more than £200 000 (about R4m) for her two sons to invest in the group, which they were promised would be repaid. She said she had not received a penny back.
An environmental consultant who also questioned the value of the mentoring with other members said she was left “terrified” and in tears, after Waugh bombarded her with abuse during a two-hour phone call.
When she later emailed a request for a refund on her £25 000 (about R500 000) investment, Waugh refused and reminded her that the group had recordings of her describing the “long-term sexual abuse” she suffered as a child.
Waugh, a father of two, claims to have many famous friends and previously mentored a Premier League and England footballer.
It is also claimed that he is very connected in government — both in the Commons and the Lords — and has helped to get laws passed.
While several other claims have been made by former Lighthouse members against Waugh and his organisation, the South African businessman has strongly denied the allegations and described them as “false and baseless”.
He said he was suing several media outlets, including the BBC and Daily Mail, for the alleged smear campaign and would seek significant compensation for “combined libellous actions of up to £150 million damages”.
Recently, the Daily Mail reported that Lighthouse made £2.4m (more than R50m) from its mentoring schemes. It said more than half of Lighthouse International Group's takings were paid to Waugh.
Waugh, who was born in Liverpool, but grew up in South Africa, said the “malicious” campaign against them had halted expansion plans.
“I grew up in South Africa and understand people and cultures here incredibly well. So my heart and spirit is very much African. It’s true, the other founders of Lighthouse are South African, but that is not the main reason we would develop our business here.”
“There is a healthy mentality to growth and development, as well as an openness and warmth to the people of Africa, particularly among African Christians.”
Waugh described claims made by various media outlets and individuals as malicious smears.
“They are either defamatory distortions of the truth with vital pieces of context missing or complete malicious falsehoods, as we have been saying for the last two years. Neither the BBC nor the Daily Mail have been willing to work with us to review our substantial counter-evidence properly to produce a full and fair disclosure of the facts, despite many by them attempts to do so.’’
“The figures have been deliberately inflated and sensationalised to suit a biased story by the BBC and others.”
He adds that claims made by members of Lighthouse that they were pressured into investing tens of thousands of pounds into the organisation were also false.
Primary school teacher Jo Holmes claims she had asked for a receipt for her £19 000 “investment” and evidence of what it had been spent on, only to receive a reply from Waugh calling her a “psychopath” and “malevolent” and implying her behaviour made her a danger to the children she taught.
When she later posted her concerns about Lighthouse online to try to warn others, the group complained about her to the headteacher of her school and threatened legal action.
Waugh has, however, rubbished all claims.
“The former partners (we do not have members) in question all willingly invested in themselves via programmes that ran over many years. We have evidence in their own words of their enthusiasm and willingness to invest. It is only when they demanded their money back after, in most cases, years of mentoring that they started throwing these accusations at us.
“The reason we are being so mercilessly slandered and defamed by the UK press is because we are challenging one of the biggest taboos: the state of and healthiness of the nuclear family.
“Everything that I and Lighthouse have been accused of we can prove is actually happening in the families and behind closed doors of the people who have come to us for help in life and business.
“They are attempting to make us into scapegoats to avoid any accountability and the truth coming out about their abuses.”
He said the continuous “toxic and pernicious“ smear campaign against Lighthouse had been incredibly difficult to deal with.
“A lie travels much faster than the truth, but it will eventually catch up, and we are fully confident of being fully vindicated and restoring our reputation in the end.”