It’s an understatement to say whistleblower Juan Lerena has borne a terrible cost for exposing abusive practices by his former employer Sime Darby and fellow multinational Unilever. Forced into defending himself in a court action where top legal firm ENS represented Sime Darby, the judgment against Lerena (which we published as a right of reply) proves US president Abraham Lincoln’s quip that in a court of law “he who represents himself has a fool for a client.” The judgment paints Lerena as un-cooperative, and ruled that he must pay Sime Darby almost R100m. It is also used by the company to show staff and customers Lerena’s allegations were groundless. Which is all very well, except that Sime Darby admitted guilt to the Competition Commission, paid a R30m fine and promised to build a R130m plant to compete with Unilever – the company Lerena claims was its partner in commercial crime. In this interview on Rational Radio Lerena gives his side of the sorry saga. – Alec Hogg
Whistleblower Juan Lerena’s day in court representing himself could cost him tens of millions of rand. Lerena arrived in the High Court, as he tells it, “with only three pieces of paper with the intention of postponing the case of Sime Darby against him. He said he wanted to give his legal team some time to prepare appropriately for the case.
But the judge decided he was not interested in a postponement saying that Lerena “looked like somebody that was quite able to defend himself “and that he did not want to postpone the case; he wanted it to start immediately. Lerena said he was taken by surprise; it was daunting, standing up in court and knowing that the case was going to proceed immediately. He says the court case happened by default.
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The result of this was a judgement against him of nearly R5m that he has to pay to his former employer Sime Darby but could be much higher as it excludes interest and at 15% per annum for a case that goes back to 2012. Lerena says the final fee could be as much as R94m and he is sure that Sime Darby will be seeking payment for that.
In the meantime, a case against Unilever is proceeding before the Competition Commission and the Commission took the case to the Competition Tribunal. This is after Sime Derby admitted to the Commission that they were guilty and have paid more than R30m. But Unilever is fighting the case at the Competition Tribunal which started on the 12th of July.
Lerena says Jonathan Kenny Fathers who was the country manager for Sime Darby from 2004 to 2012 took the stand for three days where he was questioned by Unilever’s legal team as well as the Competition Commission. Lerena also took the stand for a further two days. The Tribunal was then postponed to later in August because some of their witnesses were not able to attend and the case.
