Four former Dimension Data executives fingered by Jason Goodall in his admission of wrongdoing over the 2019 Campus sale have hit back. They say he was not authorised to speak for them, that his statement contradicts what he said under oath and that its wording was dictated by his settlement with NTT.
In a statement issued on Wednesday on behalf of Jeremy Ord, Steven Nathan, Saki Missaikos and Grant Bodley, the four said they had noted Goodall’s statement, revealed by TechCentral earlier on Wednesday, “with shock and dismay”.
In that statement, dated 5 October, Goodall – the former CEO of the Dimension Data group and of NTT Ltd – admitted that he had secretly taken part on the buying side of the sale of The Campus, Dimension Data’s Bryanston head office, while advising NTT on the selling side. He named the four as having taken part with him, said their interests had been held “through nominees in a structure designed to keep our names hidden”, and agreed to pay NTT about R208.6-million (US$12.5-million). NTT confirmed that the statement was authentic.
“Not only was Mr Goodall not authorised to make any statement on our behalf, but his admission of wrongdoing is also entirely inconsistent with what Mr Goodall has deposed to under oath,” the four said.
The executives said Goodall’s statement was signed as a term of a negotiated settlement of “substantial personal claims” NTT had brought against him in separate proceedings in the UK, which they described as an arbitration set down for hearing on 5 October – the date of his statement. The settlement agreement has not been published.
“There is no doubt that the wording of Mr Goodall’s statement is the product of what was negotiated and agreed between NTT and Mr Goodall as a term of the settlement agreement,” they said. Goodall had “regrettably permitted NTT to use him as a weapon in their dubious ongoing publicity campaign against us”.
‘Devastated’ and ‘shattered’
According to the four, Goodall told them in a WhatsApp message on 5 October, before his statement was released, that he was “devastated” and “shattered”. They said he described “a brutal weekend and a really tough time over the last 6 months preparing for the arbitration”, and told them that had he lost, he would have been “totally wiped out”. TechCentral has not seen the messages. Goodall has not responded to WhatsApped requests for comment on the day’s developments.
The four rejected Goodall’s account of the structure through which they invested. They said the fund was designed by Identity Partners and specifically approved by NTT on the advice of law firm Webber Wentzel and a commercial bank, and “was not designed with the intention of hiding our participation in The Campus transaction”.
They also said Bodley had sought and obtained Goodall’s permission – as his boss and as a representative of NTT – to participate in the fund.
The executives repeated their argument that they invested only because The Campus was regarded, by them and by NTT, as an integral part of a management buyout they were negotiating with NTT from 2019 to 2021, which NTT had told them to keep under wraps. They said NTT had controlled The Campus throughout through a loan covering 95% of the purchase price, and “could have taken the Campus back under the loan as they have now done”.
Goodall’s statement said the conduct “was not excused by any potential management buyout, which we knew would be a separate transaction”.
The four described the timing of Goodall’s statement as “deeply inappropriate but expedient”. In November 2024, Johannesburg high court judge Denise Fisher declared the sale void, finding that six former executives, including Goodall and the four, had “entered into an illegal scheme designed to appropriate for themselves a secret financial benefit”. The executives’ appeal was heard by the supreme court of appeal on 11 May, and judgment has been reserved.
“The entire matter is sub judice,” the four said. “We have full faith in the supreme court of appeal, and we will not be judged by a statement made by Mr Goodall on terms dictated by his settlement agreement with NTT.”
Bruce “Doc” Watson, the sixth executive named in the judgment, was not mentioned in Goodall’s statement and is not party to Wednesday’s response. — (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media
