Update: Former DiData execs submit application for leave to appeal

Former Dimension Data executives have submitted an application for leave to appeal a recent court ruling..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here..The seventh BizNews Conference, BNC#7, is to be held in Hermanus from March 11 to 13, 2025. The 2025 BizNews Conference is designed to provide an excellent opportunity for members of the BizNews community to interact directly with the keynote speakers, old (and new) friends from previous BNC events – and to interact with members of the BizNews team. Register for BNC#7 here..In full: Former DiData executives leave to appeal document.3 December 2024 –.Download PDFThird to Ninth and Eleventh Respondents' Application for Leave to AppealDownload.Statement by the former Executives of Dimension Data in response to court ruling.2 December 2024 – The judgment of the Gauteng High Court delivered by Judge D Fisher on 25 November 2024 came as a surprise to us and our legal team, who are preparing an application for leave to appeal against the findings made by the judge. .We are resolute in our commitment to ensuring that we are exonerated from any wrongdoing..The basis for the application and the grounds on which we maintain the judge made findings which are unjustified and unfair will be fully canvassed in the notice of application for leave to appeal and in the ensuing argument before the court. The purpose of this statement is not to argue our case. It is to correct certain publicly held misconceptions flowing from articles and statements made in the media and to set the record straight about the BEE Campus property transaction and our role in it. .All the matters traversed in the judgement took place in the context of NTT looking to sell its African business through a management buy-out ("MBO"). In order to achieve the best possible price (whether in the MBO or otherwise), NTT knew that they needed to address the South African business' weak BEE score. NTT had a choice to either fund the sale of shares in the business to a BEE partner or to achieve the requisite BEE credentials by helping a BEE group to buy the Campus property and leasing it back from them. NTT opted for the Campus transaction to achieve its objectives, despite the protestations of South African management and the Executives who thought a sale of shares achieved a more sustainable form of empowerment..Aside from the fact that the Campus was sold to BEE for fair value (which was approved by NTT Executives), it also resulted in the achievement of a meaningful wealth creation opportunity for broad-based black economic empowerment (not including the Executives) and simultaneously addressed the concerns NTT had about the South African business' BEE credentials. We also point out that the transaction resulted in NTT's South African business achieving a meaningful reduction in operational costs..In the end, the BEE outcome was achieved through two transactions – the sale of the Campus to a BEE entity and the creation of a long-term incentive plan for black employees of the business..In July 2019, the Campus was sold to a wholly owned subsidiary of a financial services group ("Propco"), whose principal person with BEE credentials was a non-executive director of Dimension Data, Ms Sonja de Bruyn. The sale of the Campus to Ms de Bruyn's group (which incorporated a majority black-female owned investment manager) was the obvious choice for NTT. Ms de Bruyn's company was 87% owned by black women. A sale to any other party would not have been more optimal in the context of what NTT sought to achieve..In November 2019, Propco was transferred to a fund established by De Bruyn's group. In terms of the relevant BEE Codes, the BEE result flowed from the fund being managed by a black fund manager regardless of who invested in the Fund. This is so because the purpose of the Code is to transform the fund management industry, and that purpose cannot be achieved by allowing black fund managers to only manage money invested by black investors..NTT decided, of its own volition, to vendor fund the acquisition with surplus cash from Japan, sidelining local Bank funding that could have been used. It was the decision of NTT (and not the Executives) to provide vendor funding..There is nothing sinister or inappropriate about the structure that was used to facilitate and house the Campus transaction. The structure is a normal private equity fund structure used for investments of all kinds. The fund structure that was used for the Campus transaction was the product of advice received by NTT from Eversheds and Webber Wentzel, two leading law firms, and a commercial bank. NTT took its cue to sell the Campus to achieve its BEE objectives from a similar Barloworld BEE transaction in which De Bruyn's group had previously participated, and Webber Wentzel had been the advisors. .The perception that this was no more than a surreptitious conspiracy by "six white males" to arrest control of the Campus property to feather our own nests at the expense of empowerment is just plain wrong and deeply distressing to us. Particularly disturbing are findings of dishonest conduct made against us based on inferences drawn from correspondence, including an email which had nothing whatsoever to do with the Campus transaction. What has been described as a defining piece of correspondence for which there is no explanation other than definitive evidence of wrongdoing by us, in fact related to the potential acquisition of an entirely different and unrelated business. This correspondence bears the project name of "THUMBZUP", which has nothing to do with the Campus transaction..We look forward to being given the opportunity to explain the true meaning to be given to this (and other) correspondence, from which inferences of wrongdoing have been incorrectly drawn. .We have facilitated a number of transactions which have had meaningful benefits for empowerment and gender equality during our tenure at Dimension Data. We have always been and remain fully committed to the achievement of transformation and the sharing of wealth with the less fortunate to redress the wrongs of the past..Read also:.Right of Reply – Webber Wentzel: We were NOT on side of 'Protagonists' in DD Campus affair Mailbox: Setting the record straight on the founding of Dimension DataThe paradox of prominent business leaders' incompetence – Jim Tait

Update: Former DiData execs submit application for leave to appeal

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