Some of you might have caught a very spicy article published in the Mail & Guardian just over a fortnight ago. It was entitled ‘Timeline Of A Telkom Tender‘ and had to do with the business dealings between one local man, Robert Gumede, and British businessman, John Sterenborg. 2oceansvibe has received statements and press releases from John Sterenborg in response to that article, as well as a recent SABC interview.

Please note that the thoughts and views of Mr. Sterenborg are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of 2oceansvibe.

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PRESS RELEASE BY JOHN STERENBORG.

This release is made in response to the interviews given and press release issued by Robert Gumede and the article in the Mail & Guardian on Friday 5 November 2010.

“DIE AAP IS UIT DIE MOU”

Everyone likes a success story especially if it concerns an individual who, against all the odds, has come good and made it into a big league. There is something special about the underdog coming up on top and usually, those who do become essential and inspiring role models for others. Within the context of South Africa the underdog would often be a person who suffered under apartheid or was held back by the appalling fall out of those decades of racism.

There are in fact many black South Africans who have done just that and their number is substantial. They have done so in academia, medicine, sports, politics, media, religion and business. We look up to them and they are real examples of what can be achieved by hard work, intelligence, determination, acumen, integrity, faith and sheer grit.

I recognise that Robert Gumede, like all of us, has also been desirous to, if not to become then, at least to be seen and be recognised as such a person.

He has all the credentials. He is, in his own words, a black man from humble background and beginnings who worked his way up by obtaining a diploma in law, then practised law and then to develop into a major businessman accumulating a great deal of wealth.

Unfortunately and sadly, Gumede is not one of those role models and is not a person people look up to. He should, and in my view, could have been if it were not for his deeply flawed character which, irrespective of the cost to anyone else’s needs or interests, compelled him to satisfy his needs only; greed. It is not only sad but also pathetic.

It seems common practice to those whose business is corruption, fraud, money laundering or any other criminal activity to claim victimisation on those occasions when they are asked to account for their actions.

Not being able to account, they hurry to claim that they are a victim, that they are being persecuted, being treated unfairly and tend to shout these things loudly in an attempt to divert attention away from their criminality, often after they have given some obviously untrue and unconvincing explanation for their exposed deeds.

If all else fails, they will shout “racism”, in the hope that such will put a lid on it. It is all to do with trying to bluff a way out of a developing hole they find themselves in and accuse those who are asking rightful questions of being on a witch hunt.

To them, as is the case with Gumede, it is not they who have caused victims, but it is they who are the victims; and also the sole beneficiaries of their organised theft.

Over the years I have never responded to the ever more absurd allegations made against me by Gumede. I felt no need to as they solely served Gumede to play to his galleries; to them he needed to try and make sure that he had a believable alibi for his appalling actions.

In that process, of scoring empty points, he sought to portray himself as the victim, in this case of a white European, who tried to double cross him, a black man, steal his money and deceive him. It was an attempt to both cover his corrupt tracks and to place himself in the realm of the innocent.

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As is the case with all fairy tales, Gumede’s stories amount to fantasy and they exclusively served him; never, ofcourse, the truth.

The interview given by Gumede to the SABC last week, and the answers he gave to the questions the Mail and Guardian put to him compelled me to make this rare response. In both instances it was clear that Gumede has remained the figure I and others have come to know; loud, juvenile, racist, without substance and the originator of lies, whoppers in fact.

Through many channels during the past years Gumede has accused me, progressively more wildly, of a range of things and also used his websites to promulgate his ever more fantastic nonsense.

His delusions come down to that he was a victim of John Sterenborg, probably in the same way that he was a victim of Brait Bank, The Financial Mail, his former wife, Sam Sole, the Department of Home Affairs, the Mail and Guardian, etc, etc, etc.

Let me, therefore, just for once, and just briefly, address the main points of Gumede’s latest instalment of empty and baseless accusations in order to provide a true and transparent context, the one Gumede does not want anyone to know:

1.                  GUMEDE’S MAIN ACCUSATIONS.

1.1.                  Gumede fiction:                   “ACT WAS A DUD AND COULD NOT PRODUCE SMART CARDS”.

Sterenborg fact: COMPLETE FAIRY TALE.

• ACT was a world class card and smart card facility.

• It was fully VISA International and MasterCard International certified.

• It was set up from scratch and had cutting edge systems, technology and equipment.

• The smart card lines were supplied by world leading manufacturers; one look at the supply invoices would be sufficient to prove Gumede’s claim a complete nonsense. One could also ask the manufacturers ofcourse.

1.2.                   Gumede fiction: “STERENBORG POCKETED R 24 MILLION IN CASH”.

Sterenborg fact: COMPLETE FAIRY TALE.

• I was paid exactly zero on his share purchase into ACT, not a cent.

• Gijima was to pay R 30 million for 26% of the shares in ACT. This value was set by his auditors, KPMG, who did a detailed due diligence on ACT and produced a 125 page report. The report stated the value of ACT to be approx R 150 million, in line with

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the valuation of ACT’s own merchant bank. Gijima got a 20% discount on that valuation. All completely transparent, therefore.

• Gumede, when his signature had hardly dried on the Shareholders Agreement (“SHA”), asked me if he could pay the R 30 million to me in cash. I refused saying that the SHA stated he had to pay the funds not to me but to the company.

• Gumede then issued ABSA cheques to ACT which bounced. Gumede clearly had more cash available then funds in the bank.

• Against one of the bounced cheques Gumede asked whether he could pay R 3 million from, what transpired to be his illegal bank accounts in Switzerland to my private account at Lloyds in London.

• I said “that is ok provided you understand that I will need to transfer those funds to ACT the moment they arrive”. They arrived and I did. I even paid for the transfer fees.

• With ACT going into liquidation, under Gumede’s leadership and now a 100% Gijima company, I lost my loan account in the company (the funds I had given the company) which was standing at R 23 million.

• I also lost approx R 10 million which ACT owed my UK company and 3 million I personally put into ACT from my current account to support working capital, to pay the salaries of our employees.

• Further, all of our original investments to get ACT started, over a period of 2 years and which were fully paid up, were ofcourse lost too.

1.3.                  Gumede fiction:                    “STERENBORG TRIED TO EXTORT R 10 MILLION OUT OF ME”.

Sterenborg fact: COMPLETE FAIRY TALE.

• Total fiction and poppy cock. Gumede had not paid the R 30 million for the initial share transfer. He also failed to pay the R 6 million for the second transfer.

• What he owed he never paid and if he had we would never have had even the inquiry. But Gumede’s greed and ego got the better of him.

1.4.                  Gumede fiction:                  “STERENBORG TRIED TO EXTORT R 27 MILLION OUT OF TELKOM”.

Sterenborg fact: COMPLETE FAIRY TALE.

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• The Commissioner of the inquiry, Arnold Subel, directed Gumede to surrender to him all of the documents pertaining the fraudulent and corrupt award by Telkom to Gijima  of the R 600 million contract to supply telephone cards. Gumede refused.

• The Commissioner then made a ruling demanding the documents. Again Gumede refused. Gumede took the Commissioners ruling on appeal to the High Court.

• The High Court was sweepingly dismissive of Gumede’s appeal. The Judge said that “one can only wonder why Gumede has refused Subel to have a look at the documents” or words to that effect. Gumede’s appeal was dismissed with costs and he was ordered to surrender the documents.

• Gumede still refused and took the High Court Judgement on appeal to the Supreme Court in Bloemfontein. The Supreme Court, in record time it should be noted,

dismissed Gumede’s appeal. It was held to have no merit at all and a waste of the court’s time. Gumede was instructed to pay costs and surrender the documents.

• Gumede never did in full. During the appeal processes Telkom hid behind the legal process also refusing to surrender their documents. They were on one line with Gumede.

• With the Supreme Court ruling also Telkom, very reluctantly, started to release documents but, as with Gumede, never did so in full. Both Gumede and Telkom are still in contempt of the Supreme Court judgment.

• Nevertheless, the documents we got showed the corruption, the corrupt manipulations and strategies being worked by Telkom and Gumede in tandem.

• I received a call from Alan Norman, the financial advisor of Smuts Ngonyama, asking me if I were not willing to settle matters with Telkom “quietly”. I responded “no”.

• I then received a call from Smuts himself, explaining that Telkom and indeed the government could not handle another corruption scandal and pleading saying “John, please be a patriot”.

• I then compiled a document for my lawyers to say that we would, in the light of Smuts’ plea, reluctantly allow Telkom off the hook against payment of our lost loan account in ACT, lost because of them.

• They agreed but wanted all of my documents in respect of Gumede and his corrupt actions on the Telkom contract as part of the deal. I refused.

• I later learned that Gumede isn’t the only main beneficiary of Telkom. So too are the mentioned Smuts, Alan Norman and those in the so-called Eliphant consortium. A club of people, one could say, who deserve each other.

• So much for extortion.

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1.5.                  Gumede fiction: COURT JUDGEMENT OF R 45 MILLION

Sterenborg fact: COMPLETE FAIRY TALE.

• Well at least the judgement is a fact. The judge, somehow, when I was neither in his court nor even in the country and not legally represented came to his judgement in respect of a profit warrantee claim.

• I do not really blame the judge as he was not informed about the facts. Those about Gumede secretly diverting contracts away from ACT to Gijima, whilst being an ACT director and pocketed the commissions.

• Here is a director of ACT undermining ACT’s revenue and profits by actively diverting contracts due to ACT, starving the company from orders, income and profits in order to obtain control. And Gumede is awarded a judgement on a profit warrantee; the irony!

• If the judge had known about Gumede’s undermining activities he would, of course have ruled differently. If he had known that Gumede, together with ACT’s merchant bank Brait and others, had set up a concert party to unseat the then shareholders he would have been, we are sure, very dismissive. But the judge was given a fantasy, a fairy tale.

• We will deal with this matter before the court and no doubt be able to remedy the Judge’s impairment on the evidence he had at the time.

1.6.                  Gumede fiction:                   “I DID NOT KNOW ACT HAD LOANS WITH BRAIT”.

Sterenborg fact: COMPLETE FAIRY TALE.

• Gumede’s fiction is without limits.

• Gumede’s auditors, KPMG, did a detailed due diligence report on ACT before Gumede bought the initial shares. It set out all ACT’s values and said the net ACT value was about R 150 million.

• Gumede started to undermine me and the other shareholders and directors in ACT in or around February 2001, about 6 months into his role as my partner.

• Gumede set up a secret concert party with Brait, a French company (Oberthur) and the landlords of the premises of ACT to unseat me and take full control of the company. Gumede was in daily contact with Brait, going through every possible avenue to get rid of the controlling shareholders.

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• When Gumede finally coerced me in selling my controlling shares he double crossed Brait and dropped them because he had cut a secret deal with the French company; they were to pay Gumede approx R45 million for half the company.

• If Gumede had paid for all the shares of ACT, which he ofcourse didn’t, the sum would have been R 36 million. So the secret deal with the French would have been very profitable and fraudulent.

• Gumede agreed to pay the loans, of which he was completely aware, signing a settlement agreement with Brait dated 1 October 2001. ACT by then had been a 100% Gijima company for months.

• Gumede reneged on this agreement because Oberthur walked away from the secret deal and with it walked the R45 million. And that caused ACT to go bust.

• With it went my loan account in ACT of R 23 million, and the debt ACT owed my other companies and me. ( Another R 15 million or so)

• I was also left being responsible for the Brait debt and the overdraft debt to Standard Bank for which I, not Gumede, had signed personal sureties.

1.7.                  Gumede fiction:                   “STERENBORG ABSCONDED” (OR EVEN FLED) THE COUNTRY”.

Sterenborg fact: COMPLETE FAIRY TALE.

• What can I say? It always brings a little smile to the faces of my staff, partners and customers when they read this peculiar nonsense.

• I live and work in Johannesburg for 65% of my time. I have done so since 1994.

• My wife is a South African national and so are my 3 children. We are devoted to the country and are as committed as anyone to see it prosper.

• The only thing I can and should say is that, in the stakes of credibility, those who know me, mostly, also know Gumede. That includes some of his closest staff.

• With the greatest humility, there is no contest between Gumede and me on that score too. He has none.

1.8.                  Gumede fiction: SAM SOLE IS CORRUPT; HAS RELATIONSHIP WITH STERENBORG.

Sterenborg fact: COMPLETE FAIRY TALE.

• To say that this is nonsense would not do justice to the sheer gall of Gumede.

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• I hardly know Sam Sole and have met with him, I believe, on 3 occasions, the last time being in 2003.

• I did pay his flight ticket of R 900, in June 2001, as his employer, Noseweek, was short of funds at the time.

• Also, in June 2001, I had a range of suspicions against Gumede but hardly hard evidence. I, therefore, wanted to bounce things off Noseweek. That I did and there was never any expectation on my side that something was going to be published; the evidences were simply not there. Those came later.

• What Gumede calls a bribe was a payment, by cheque, of R 900. I understand that bribes are normally paid cash.

A simple test to get to the truth in all of the above matters is to observe who gained, and how, and who did not; it is self evident.

One would be right in drawing the conclusion that any person telling so very many fairy tales is either mentally disturbed, and should receive some serious professional help, or is a crook trying to cover his tracks.

Having dealt with the above specifics I should briefly comment on the source of Gumede’s wealth, in so far that such is not clear already.

2.                  GUMEDE BUSINESS PRACTICES.

Gumede has obtained, mostly, governmental tenders by corruption which started in the late 90’s with the tender Gumede obtained from the Department of Correctional Services.

The then Minister, Mzimela, received from Gumede, amongst other incentives, an Audi A8 motor car. Gumede has continued with that business practice ever since.

The combined value of those tenders to date is approx R 12 billion.

An important point to appreciate is that Gumede’s capital outlay to get these tenders was limited to the bribes he paid. Substantial as they were, they compare into insignificance with the value of the contracts he got.

Also, Gijima and Gumede have hardly ever delivered anything at all against those awards which means that the monies paid to him by the State went straight down to the Gumede income line.

It is a public fact that Gijima’s track record on project delivery is laughable and this can be seen, most recently, by the cancellation of the R 4 billion contract to Gijima by the Department of Home Affairs.

In that case not only did Gijima fail to deliver any solution for two years, Gijima were exposed in obtaining the tender illegally.

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For the R 12 billion the Republic of South Africa was coerced in handing to Gumede the State has nothing to show for it. The money has gone for no return and the money was fraudulently taken from the State, meaning the citizens of SA including the homeless and the poor, those who live in squatter camps, by Gumede with one beneficiary only; Gumede.

Most of Gumede’s corruption happened during the Mbeki years. He was protected by that regime and made his billions during that regime. Gumede, the Mbekiite, who, when things went wrong for his master, turned and started to support President Zuma clearly in the hope to be able to continue his corrupt cause.

However, I have no doubt that the R 10 million Gumede donated to the ANC will not have blinded those in the party from recognising where that money came from;  the State and the poor, therefore.

I have faith in the President of South Africa, who has a wealth of experience; also, I am sure, in spotting an opportunistic Mbekiite turncoat a mile away.  Again, the cancellation of the R 4 billion award to Gijima by Home Affairs and the sound judgment by the Minister of that department offers hope that Gumede, and his likes, have run out of rope.

The manner in which an individual spends his money is normally his personal business but in the case of Gumede it is the business of the public; it is their funds he has taken.

With so many people living on or even below the bread line in our country, throwing a wedding party at a cost of R 50 million is in my view, frankly, a little vulgar and graceless.

This becomes especially so when that R 50 million has been taken from the coffers of the State, from those same people on or below that breadline. Shameless.

The damage Gumede has done to our country, in respect of crushing business morality, accountability, the application of law and service delivery to the poor is incalculable.

3.                  ZONGI GUMEDE.

This brings me to my final point. I noted that Gumede mentioned in the M&G article that his former wife Zongi was the source of acrimony in their divorce. Gumede was apparently saying that he was the innocent victim of his former wife’s acrimony.

This has persuaded me that I now should put into the public domain an event which I have kept quiet about for 9 years, for the sake of the victim who asked me for my help.

In February 2001 I received a call from a deeply distressed Zongi Gumede. She in fact sounded terrified and asked whether she could see me urgently. She explained that she had no transport and I advised her she could take a taxi to my home which my wife paid for on her arrival.

I excused myself from my visitors to meet with her. She told me that Robert had beaten her up, thrown her out of the house together with her children. He had prevented her from taking her car and left her penniless.

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She obviously had suffered a very gruesome battering and had come to our home from the hospital where her wounds had been drained for a second time.

She explained that she had no money to pay the hospital, to buy food or pay the school fees. She went on to say that I was the only person who could help her as she trusted only me not to tell Robert about her request for help.

I never did. I paid her sufficient funds to settle her bills and also bought her a flight ticket so that she could go back to her Mum in Durban.

I was never tempted to raise this appalling incident in public in spite of Gumede’s disgusting under hand tactics and lies against me prior, during and after the inquiry. If I had, then it probably would have made my life easier as everyone would have known the type of character Gumede truly is.

I didn’t for Zongi’s sake and that of her children as I feared what Gumede was likely to do to her if this became public knowledge. So much for Gumede’s duplicity and pretence in respect of the mentioned acrimony.

Gumede thus demonstrated of having no shame, morality or integrity and I hope these facts will be noted and acted upon by the ANCWL and those involved in women’s rights and protection.

As mentioned, this happened in February 2001, the same month when Gumede started to undermine ACT and myself. It could be coincidence but I guess that he found out about my help to Zongi and decided he could no longer trust me.

For the 6 months we worked together Robert called me broer and extended bear hugs. Overnight that changed and during the subsequent months he refused to talk to me or even take my calls.

So much for Gumede the “victim”, “businessman”, “husband” and” father”.

He is none of any of these.

I mentioned that I find the man sad and pathetic and I trust that this statement motivates my sentiments appropriately.

And, sadly, there is a great deal more.

END OF PRESS RELEASE.

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OPEN LETTER BY JOHN STERENBORG.

12 NOVEMBER 2010

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RE:                  M&G ARTICLE ON THE BUSINESS PRACTICES OF ROBERT GUMEDE – 5 NOVEMBER 2010.

I refer to the detailed article in the M&G of last week on Robert Gumede which contained solid facts and, at least to me, no surprises.

The events leading up to the publication were, it must be said, extraordinary and here I refer to Gumede’s rambling press release dated 3 November and the bizarre and wild interview he gave to the SABC.

As you will be aware, I have never over the years commented on the progressively more absurd allegations made by Gumede, but last week’s events have compelled me to make this rare response.

Both his press release and interview confirmed that Gumede has remained the figure I and many others have come to know; loud, juvenile, racist, lacking any substance and the originator of lies, whoppers in fact. Also in that sense Gumede has continued to demonstrate his breed, that of a one trick pony.

I have, therefore, compiled a detailed press release in response and which is sanctioned for release within the next days.

In it, I address all of the main points Gumede had the breathtaking gall to raise and provide a true, unequivocal and transparent context, the one Gumede does not want anyone to know about.

It deals, in 3 main chapters, under the heading “DIE AAP IS UIT DIE MOU”, with the following;

• GUMEDE’S FICTIONAL STATEMENTS ABOUT ME AND ACT.

• GUMEDE’S CORRUPT BUSINESS PRACTICES 1997 – 2010.

• ZONGI GUMEDE.

It, accordingly, covers the full range of Gumede’s genre; from fraudster all the way down to, even more vulgar, wife beater.

Amongst others, the ANCWL might provide a view on a person who finds it within himself to beating a woman senseless, gruesomely so, then kicking her and her children out of the house without money or transport.

She asked for help which she received.

I offer no prizes for guessing who paid the bills when Zongi, penniless, emerged from hospital.

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My press release is not a pretty read; sometimes the truth can be deeply ugly.

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Like all of us, I too have seen, especially during the past decade, certain unsavoury developments which have undermined our country and made it the poorer for all the wrong reasons.

This, particularly where it concerns accountability and corruption, not only in business but also in jurisprudence and civil morality, a decline Gumede has greatly contributed to.

I know of no person who takes Gumede seriously, or even liking him, perhaps with the exception of those who are beneficiaries of his graft.

Mostly, in my experience, people loath and detest him for his arrogant, corrupt, monstrous and degrading behaviour which, until now, has gone unpunished.

In short, he is an embarrassment to all of those who are unfortunate enough to have to associate with him.

A friend of mine, having read my press release, said “every dog will get its day”. I think he might well be proven correct.

I have called Gumede in my release sad and pathetic, a person devoid of grace and credibility.

It seems most likely that the release will turn out to be only a first instalment; there is a great deal more.

Yours,

John Sterenborg

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