(Apologies for cross posting) From: Richard Bell <Richard@Bell.co.ke> Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2007 20:01:31 +0300 To: <mucheru@wananchi.com> Subject: FW: African Lakes - Kenyan Investors and Entrepreneurs are gettign screwed by Telkom South Africa and the self seeking Board of African Lakes's Chairman - David Montgomery You can send it to anyone else as well. We need as much publicity as we can get. First prize would be a statement from some government department indicating that they don't want South African firms simply marching into Kenya. Could Ndemo help? R -------------------------------------- Subject: African Lakes - Kenyan Investors and Entrepreneurs are getting screwed by Telkom South Africa and the self seeking Board of African Lakes's Chairman - David Montgomery Long time. Anyway we're in the process of getting screwed by Telkom South Africa and the Board of African Lakes. I'm attaching copies of the latest two announcements that went out (the juicy bits are in yellow). I'm also attaching a file that contains an exchange of emails that shows just how unreasonable the company are being (although this on can't be released verbatim since its supposed to be confidential).
http://www.londonstockexchange.co.uk/LSECWS/IFSPages/MarketNewsPopup.aspx?id 1402054&source=RNS
http://www.londonstockexchange.co.uk/LSECWS/IFSPages/MarketNewsPopup.aspx?id 1402307&source=RNS
Basically we are getting screwed and the only way that we can win now is to create sufficient bad publicity for Telkom South Africa that is scares them off.
There follows some more background showing what Telkom South Africa have been up to in other markets. "Does Kenya really want this thousand pound bully boy taking over Kenya's Internet Industry?"
Any chance you can get a piece into next week's East African. I am on Email, can be called on +254 733 617 186 and up till tomorrow on my UK Mobile + 44 7772 251 772. am ready to go on the record and am happy to be quoted.
Kind Regards, Richard Bell
PS. If you are in any doubts about whether the African Lakes' Chairman David Montgomery is a shyster, just put in a call to Private Eye in London. They'll give you chapter and verse
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Telkom faces R2bn bill after lawsuit
November 23, 2006By Thabiso Mochiko Johannesburg
Telkom faces more than R2 billion in damages and legal fees after it lost a five-year legal battle against US-based computer software supplier Telcordia. Telkom's costs, which have been estimated by Telcordia at between R2 billion and R2.5 billion, represent more than 20 percent of this financial year's annual profit of R9.3 billion.
Telkom's shares dropped 3.7 percent to close at R130 yesterday. The Top 40 index gained 0.38 percent. Telcordia's lawyer, Lennard Cowan, said yesterday that the two companies would now start negotiating the settlement, which would amount to about R2.5 billion, including legal costs. He said the negotiations were unlikely to be finalised before the end of December.
The group executive for legal services, Anton Klopper, said Telkom was studying the judgment and evaluating "options regarding the protection of its rights". "The consequence of the judgment is, among other things, that the parties will return to and continue with the arbitration proceedings as they were prior to Telkom's review application to the high court," said Klopper. He said the arbitrator had made an interim award that only addressed certain aspects of the case. This had been effectively upheld by the judgment of the supreme court of appeal.
The remainder of the matter would be dealt with at the upcoming arbitration proceedings. Two years ago Telkom estimated its contingent liabilities from the Telcordia matter to be $47 million (R340 million at yesterday's exchange rate). Telkom said in this year's annual report that in the 2001 financial year, it had written off R119 million of this investment. It incurred expenditure of R594 million up to March 2002.
Cowan said it was not clear whether Telcordia would set up shop again in South Africa as it had opened a local office specifically for the Telkom contract. The appeal court's judgment upheld a 2002 decision by an international arbitrator, but overturned a 2003 judgment by the Pretoria high court. The battle started five years ago when Telkom cancelled a contract with Telcordia, claiming that the state-of-the-art software applications ordered had not been delivered.
Telcordia then lodged a case with an international arbitrator, claiming $130 million plus interest at a rate of 15.5 percent a year for money outstanding and damages. Telkom reacted by making counterclaims against Telcordia worth about $331 million, including for a refund of money already paid to the US company. The appeal court did not uphold this claim. Telcordia received a partial ruling in September 2002 from an international arbitrator chosen by the two companies. The arbitrator accepted Telcordia's interpretation of the contract. But Telkom refused to accept this and applied to the Pretoria high court to review the judgment and set aside the partial award. In 2003 the court ruled in favour of Telkom. But Telcordia then took the matter to the appeal court, which said the high court had dealt with the matter as an appeal and not a review, and therefore upheld the international court award. This meant Telcordia could recover damages from Telkom because it had breached the agreement.
In this year's annual report, Telkom claimed that it had been approached by Telcordia's representatives to consider certain settlement proposals. - With additional reporting by Sapa
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Telkom has also attracted attention for improperly conducting itself in contract dispute with Telcordia resulting in a decision from the Supreme Court of Appeal against its favour in which the Judge described Telkoms legal team as conducting "verbal manipulation". [3]
On the 19th January 2007, a full page advertisement was taken out in The Mail and Guardian, a national South African newspaper. Money for the ad was donated by dissatisfied South African individuals and businesses. The page is used as a public outcry, detailing some of the things Telkom has done in hopes of bringing more attention to the current situation in South Africa's telecoms industry. The effort was organised by the Telecoms Action Group, TAG
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