The travails of Multi-links have become a regular feature in the Nigerian & international media in the last seven months. We are also aware that all publications have been products of pronouncements by one director or the other, especially our group Chief Executive Officer – Pinky Moholi who seats in Telkom Towers in Pretoria, South Africa. The decision to tell our side of the story is premised on two angles:
The travails of Multi-links have become a regular feature in the Nigerian & international media in the last seven months. We are also aware that all publications have been products of pronouncements by one director or the other, especially our group Chief Executive Officer – Pinky Moholi who seats in Telkom Towers in Pretoria, South Africa. The decision to tell our side of the story is premised on two angles:
➢ The media statement credited to GCEO – Pinky Moholi, saying that the failure of Multi-links is the baby of the Company Board of Directors in Nigeria and Telkom will no longer fund the company because Telkom investments in Multi-links is the worst in the South African investment history.
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➢ The falsehood been peddled in the media and the deliberate cover up of the REAL FACTS by Telkom management with regards to reasons why Multi-links Telecommunications “ IS DEAD AND CANNOT BE REVIVED”
It must be borne in mind that Telkom SA bought over Multi-Links Nigeria Ltd as a fairly thriving company in 2007. This deal was the beginning of the big fraud that was orchestrated by Telkom staff against her shareholders. Telecoms analysts, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the original decision to invest in Multi-Links with the price tag was a poor one and serious questions about corporate governance needed to be asked. Telkom bought 75% of Multi-Links, in May 2007 for $280m. Analysts have said consistently that Telkom severely overpaid for the stake — the purchase price was more than three times the $44m price tag recommended to Telkom by KPMG. Still not done with defrauding the shareholders fund, The hardened Fraudsters from Telkom confused them to buy the remaining shares of 25% at more than 6 times its initial value (when they have not even made any profit on the already acquired 75%). This makes Telkom’s decision to purchase the remaining 25% of Multi-Links in January 2009 for $130m even more perplexing. Ekwow Spio-Garbrah, a government representative on the Telkom board, was the only Telkom director to object to the acquisition and was subsequently fired on 28 April 2009.
MULTI-LINKS STAFF SIDE OF THE STORY:
As employees and professionals with expertise in different fields we feel cheated, abused, insulted and dehumanized by South Africans under the apex leadership of
• Thami Nsimango
• Hasnein Motleker
These South Africans laid the foundations for the interminable perpetration of fraud between 2007/2008, they also ensured that no Nigerian occupied any position of significance to make it easy for them to cover the strategies imported from South Africa to siphon Telkom Billions of Rands into their personal pockets and indeed they succeeded!
If the GCEO is an honest leader all she should do now is to tell the world the following:
• What is the role of Reuben September, Thami Msimango and the BOD of Telkom in the fraudulent purchase of Multilinks with a price tag that is three times more than the price suggested by the company consultant KPMG for the acquisition?
• What is the role of Thami Msimango in the controversial contracts that ruined Multi-links?
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• Why did Thami Msimango and his South African collaborators sign a lease agreement of ten years with Helios Towers where Multi-links have to pay over $200,000,000dollars between 2007/2010 when their consultant advised them to build the same Quantity of towers for $80 million dollars.
• Why did Telkom approve N1.6 Billion naira for banana island 5 years accommodation for these South Africans?
• Who signed the payment for the controversial 10,200,000 subscribers platform for which we pay Comverse every month whereas we have less than 2,000,000 nationwide?
• What is the role of Reuben Layman with His South African brothers in not securing the NETWORK? And after paying over N200,000,000 for the security equipment?
• What is the use of buying 30 Executive Jeeps worth over N130 million naira for a company that has just been bought and a naira profit has not been recorded? Even MTN with all the money does not live in Banana Island.
• What is the role/ relationship of Telkom management with all the big vendors:
Comverse
Lloyd Anderson
KPMG
Mckenzie
• Jeffery Hedberg and Zeona Jacobs pair is part of the scam that came to enrich themselves under the guise of consultancy. To mention a few.
The interesting thing to note here is that these vendors and indeed all the other controversial ones are rooted in South Africa and all the men mentioned above are accomplices in all the deals.
Another thing of interest which Telkom management need to tell the world are reason/s for engagement of South Africans as consultants/vendors in all the key jobs in the company contrary to international job regulations. E.g.
Director of Sales and Marketing – Chris Bannister-
Director of Human Resources/ Procurement – Dave Rapson.
Director of Technical/Information – Ezra Rheeder.
Director of Finance – Hasnein Motleker (Hasnain was party to all the dubious contracts but Telkom management and Pinky Moholi has not found any reason to question his roles)
Master strategies used to perpetrate the fraud:
• Breach of immigration regulations on expatriate quota - 33 experts excluding their families who come into Nigeria every month at the expense of the company.
• Unlawful extension of contracts against immigration laws.
• Non compliance with administrative procedures of purchases and supplies. ( the management designed procedures for South African and different procedures for the rest.
• They created jumbo salaries for Expatriates, 97% of whom knows nothing about what they are employed to do.
• Use of unqualified Expats for specialized areas- example – Paul Goeser who knows but paraded as Head of Touch Centre, HR and Project Management offices. Presently Dave Rapson whose qualification is in doubt is the Chief of HR & Procurement services.
These so called expats/consultants receives a minimum of N5, 000, 000. ( five million naira) monthly salary excluding other paraphernalia of the undeserved offices they occupy.
CONCLUSION:
We honestly sympathize with these fellow African brothers of ours from the South. The truth of the story is that Multi-links Telecommunications is a viable company inspite of the lies the fraudsters have told the media, the mere pronouncement of death is different from real death. The people that ruined the fortunes of the company are:
• Reuben September (formerly GCEO of Telkom),
• Thami Msimango (former MD Telkom international and head of Multi-links who signed all the controversial contracts that ruined the fortunes of the company)
• Dipuo Msimang (former Chief of Sales and Marketing),
• Reuben Layman (former Chief Information officer),
• Setumo Mohapi( former Chief Operations Officer/ Chief marketing and Sales Officer)
• Mark Mark ( formerly head of Procurement)
• Ian Macgregor( former Executive Marketing / advertisement),
• Kwadwo Asumaning( former Head of billing who bought a single aquarium fish for R10,000) to mention a few.
• Ezra Rheeder – Current Chief of Technical/ information.
The companies they used are:
• Helios Towers,
• Comverse,
• Lloyd Anderson,
• Mckenzie,
• Expert Edge,
• Dimension Data,
• APS
• Blue Chips Technologies
• Huawei ( we have been paying $83,000, eighty three thousand dollars monthly since 2008 till date for services that was never used)
In the name of turn around, the following contractors/expatriates were also used to siphon the funds.
• Jeffrey Hedberg
• Zeona Jacobs
• Paul Goeser
• Catherine Carins –owner of Polo Africa, who used her largesse from Multi-links to buy horses and Ponies worth millions, what impart did she make in the company?
• Dave Rapson – the inexperienced Director of HR & Procurement Services.
This is the first part of our side of the story. We are set to proceed to the international Criminal court, EFCC, NCC, South African Government, Nigerian National Assembly etc except Justice is done by apprehending and prosecuting all the fraudsters and adequately redeem the image of Nigeria which they used as a platform for these crimes and compensate the staff for the quantum damages done to them.
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