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Controversial British businessman John Sterenborg has emerged as a key figure in the running battle between Joburg businessman Robert Gumede and the Mail & Guardian newspaper.
Gumede yesterday accused Sterenborg of being the first person to make an allegation that his ex-wife, Zongi, was used to channel R100,000 to a former Telkom executive, Thapelo Petje.
The newspaper reported on Friday that the R100,000 payment was made in October 2004, two years after Gumede's Afrika Smart Technologies was awarded a multi-million rand tender by Telkom to manufacture smart cards and 10 months before the tender was extended by Telkom in August 2005.
Gumede says Sterenborg, who owes his company R45m, "absconded" from the country.
He says investigators tracked Sterenborg down in the UK, where he has no traceable assets.
He says he has been unable to recover any part of the R45m owed by Sterenborg.
Tracing the history of his battles with Sterenborg, Gumede says his company, Guma, purchased 26% of the shares in Applied Card Technologies (ACT) in August 2000 for the sum of R30m.
"Payment of approximately R25m was made to Sterenborg, the major shareholder and CEO of ACT. He was to retain the money (R30m) in ACT for its operational costs but the money was misused and disappeared within eight months."
He says Sterenborg sold Guma the balance of the shares (74%) on August 4 2001 for only R5m "because of the declined state of ACT".
"R2m was paid within 48 hours of signing the sale agreement, R1m was to be paid by ACT and the balance of R2m was to be paid to Sterenborg on delivery of inter alia audited financials, management accounts, tax clearance certificates and debtors' books. As a result of Sterenborg's failure to meet this condition, the final payment of R2m was withheld."
Gumede says without his knowledge, Brait Merchant Bank Ltd, a financier of ACT, threatened to liquidate ACT as a result of its and Sterenborg's failure to pay its instalment sale agreements and short term loan". Gumede was unaware of this threat or loans.
"On August 2 2001 Brait cancelled the instalment sale agreements in writing, demanded immediate payment of the outstanding R17m from ACT and informed Sterenborg that they had begun a liquidation action of ACT.
"This written demand was sent directly to Sterenborg at his home. Two days later, Sterenborg sold the remaining 74% shares without disclosing Brait's cancellation of the instalment sale agreement and its R17m payment demand and threatened liquidation action."
Gumede says "this deliberate deceit amounts to fraud. Immediately after Guma purchased the 74% shareholding, Brait instituted a liquidation application which was ultimately successful".
Gumede says he vigorously opposed the application in order to save his investment of R25m but ACT was finally liquidated on February 2002.
As a result, Gumede says he invested and lost approximately R30m (including legal costs) .
A month later Telkom issued a tender for the supply of smart card-based telephone cards. His company, which was by then known as GITA, was awarded the Telkom tender in July 2002.
He says Sterenborg then waged a media campaign against him from early 2002 and launched four legal actions against him.
He says they were all settled or decided in his favour by the South Gauteng High Court.
Gumede says he then launched an action for damages flowing from unfulfilled profit warranties. A judgment was granted in his favour. The outstanding indebtedness by Sterenborg and his wife to Guma is approximately R45m.
He describes Sterenborg as a "dishonest businessman who ran away from his debts after fraudulently selling an insolvent company to a black businessman, pocketing R24m cash and attempting to extort money from Telkom to the sum of approximately R27m".
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