Smuts sold us out, say contacts - 29/08/2013 11:10:00 and JAN BORNMAN COPE’s acting deputy president and former ANC communications chief, Smuts Ngonyama, is in court this week fighting a R100-million lawsuit. Ngonyama allegedly sold out three local business contacts in a deal to introduce American wireless technology into South Africa six years ago. Now Jerry Moagi, Elaine Damons and David Levinson — who said they were enticed by Ngonyama’s “connections” — have asked the high court in Johannesburg to order Ngonyama to pay what he promised them. In court papers, they allege that Moagi and Damons met Ngonyama at ANC headquarters Luthuli House in April 2007 to discuss introducing the technology, which would rase connectivity speeds. In an oral agreement, they claim, Ngonyama undertook to pay Moagi, Damons and Levinson R33-million each if they introduced him to Ahmed Dike, a representative of Tradeport Global Limited, which had acquired the technology. In turn, Ngonyama would introduce the technology to “interested third parties” in SA and pay the three the money. In court papers, Moagi, Damons and Levinson claim they facilitated the introduction and gave Ngonyama information about the technology, which he then took to various organisations. These included Telkom, which implemented it in April 2008 — either directly or through a subsidiary, they said. Both Ngonyama and Telkom have denied this. Testifying yesterday, Moagi said Ngonyama had promised to introduce the technology to the SABC, Telkom and Sentech. “He ordered us to give him all the necessary documentation concerning the project. The three of us even went with him and Dike to the Icasa offices for licensing, where Telkom was identified as an entity Tradeport could partner with to implement the technology,” he said. Moagi told The Times he approached Ngonyama because of his political and business connections. “Our agreement was based on trust and we were going to draw a contract after we saw work done.”
Posted on: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 13:18:17 +0000
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