Explosive allegations against top South African tech executives

New allegations have emerged against the former Dimension Data executives linked to an illegal scheme in a recent Johannesburg High Court ruling.

The fresh allegations about lawfare came from the owners of the RandView Datacentre, Gerry Comninos and Graham Roy.

They accused the former Dimension Data executives of using lawfare and corporate tactics to bully them and put their business at risk.

They said they were forced to spend millions and lost three years of their lives fighting the injustice in court.

These allegations emerged shortly after the executives Jeremy Ord, Jason Goodall, Grant Bodley, Steven Nathan, Saki Missaikos, and Bruce Watson were lambasted in a court ruling.

On 25 November 2024, Johannesburg High Court Judge Denise Fisher ruled that the sale of The Campus was an “illegal scheme”.

She said former Dimension Data executives “entered into an illegal scheme designed to appropriate for themselves a secret financial benefit”.

Dimension Data’s sale of The Campus was promoted as a black economic empowerment (BEE) deal for parent company NTT Data.

The Campus in Bryanston was sold for around R1.3 billion to a black women-led consortium. Dimension Data’s financial statements valued it at R1.6 billion.

Fisher ruled that the executives were conflicted with their boards from a section 75 perspective and their common law duties as directors.

“The scheme was brazen and dishonest. It was orchestrated without due regard to the relationships between the Japanese holding entities and the SA interests,” she ruled.

She added that this flouting of foundational and universal commercial values should not go unchecked and unpunished.

She said it went against upholding the values of honesty and integrity intrinsic to proper commercial relationships.

“From a South African Black empowerment perspective, it is of grave concern that these White Captains of Industry have subverted the empowerment legislation for their benefit.”

She described it as a cautionary tale for those who apply and regulate the BEE infrastructure, which is vital to the development of South Africa’s constitutional democracy.

She declared the transaction void and ordered that Dimension Data Facilities was entitled to restitution of The Campus and all related assets and contracts.

Fisher added that the conduct that emerged from the undisputed facts warranted a punitive cost order.

On Monday, 2 December 2024, the former Dimension Data executives announced they had launched an application for leave to appeal.

They said the judgment came as a surprise to them and their legal team and were preparing an application for leave to appeal against the findings made by Fisher.

“We are resolute in our commitment to ensuring that we are exonerated from any wrongdoing,” the group said.

They said the judge made unjustified and unfair findings, which would be fully canvassed in the notice of application for leave to appeal.

New allegations against the executives

Grandview Datacentre owners Gerry Comninos and Graham Roy accused the former executives, led by Jeremy Ord, of corporate bullying tactics.

They told Biznews they developed the Randburg-based data centre in the early 2000s to lease it to corporate clients.

Their first client was Xerox, and after it left, they entered into a 10-year lease agreement with Dimension Data with a five-year renewal period.

Everything went well until it was time to renew the lease. Comninos and Roy said this was when Ord and his team tried to undermine the terms of the original agreement.

They said the negotiations were confrontational, and they even had the lease agreement thrown at them during a meeting.

The dispute was centred around the monthly rental and the value of the property, which were closely linked.

Comninos and Roy said the property was valued at R311 million and that fair rent would be around R4 million per month.

However, the Dimension Data executives argued that the property value was only R34 million and that they should only pay R231,000 monthly.

Comninos and Roy highlighted there was something untoward about the situation that did not feel right or make sense.

The dispute ended in a legal battle, and Comninos and Roy accused the Dimension Data executives of using legal tactics to exhaust them and wear them down.

After a leadership change at Dimension Data, the company, which now traded as NTT Data, was more open to negotiations.

NTT Data settled and agreed to the terms of the original lease agreement, including paying a market-related rent.

Daily Investor contacted the Dimension Data executives for comment and will update the article should they provide feedback.