Jason Goodall, the former group CEO of Dimension Data and NTT Ltd, has admitted that he secretly took part on the buying side of the 2019 sale of Dimension Data’s Johannesburg head office while advising NTT on the selling side. He has agreed to pay NTT about R208.6-million (US$12.5-million) in settlement.
In a signed statement dated 5 October 2026, provided to TechCentral by Stein Scop Attorneys, which acts for NTT in the dispute, Goodall named four other former Dimension Data executives – Jeremy Ord, Steven Nathan, Saki Missaikos and Grant Bodley – as having taken part on both sides of the transaction with him.
“Our undisclosed interests were held through nominees in a structure designed to keep our names hidden,” Goodall wrote. “Our participation and non-disclosure was a very serious breach of fiduciary duty and misled NTT.”
It is the first public admission of wrongdoing by any of the executives implicated in the deal. Ord, Nathan, Missaikos and Bodley have denied wrongdoing and are appealing a high court judgment against them. TechCentral reached out to Werksmans director Darren Willans, who represents the former executives. He referred the publication to an intermediary, Neil Lazarus, who said via a text message: “I have not consulted with our clients or the legal team as yet. It is premature for any engagement with the media.”
NTT confirmed to TechCentral that the statement is authentic. It appears to form part of a settlement agreement between Goodall and NTT: its footer refers to “NTT v Goodall — Settlement Agreement — execution version 5 October 2026”.
NTT’s attorneys said the South African proceedings against Ord, Nathan, Missaikos, Bodley, Bruce “Doc” Watson and property consultant Martin Epstein “continue”. Goodall was not on that list. TechCentral understands the settlement ends both the UK claim and the South African proceedings against Goodall, though this has not directly been confirmed.
The background
The Campus, a 75 000m² office park in Bryanston, was sold in December 2019 to Identity Property Fund, a black women-led consortium headed by investment banker Sonja de Bruyn. Dimension Data leased back its space, and the deal helped lift the company from a level-4 to a level-2 broad-based black economic empowerment (B-BBEE) contributor. Bloomberg later reported the price as R1.4-billion.
TechCentral broke the news in January 2022 that a forensic investigation by law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, commissioned by NTT after a whistle-blower came forward, had found that former executives failed to disclose personal financial interests in the sale. According to Goodall, they “continued successfully to hide our participation” until the whistle-blower’s report in May 2021.
In November 2024, Johannesburg high court judge Denise Fisher declared the sale void. She found that six former executives – Ord, Goodall, Bodley, Nathan, Missaikos and Watson – had “entered into an illegal scheme designed to appropriate for themselves a secret financial benefit which placed them in conflict with their boards”. She ordered that The Campus be returned to Dimension Data, now NTT Data, and awarded punitive costs against the executives and ID Propco, the company that bought the property.
Watson is not named in Goodall’s statement, though NTT’s proceedings against him continue.
Fisher granted the executives leave to appeal in January 2025, and the supreme court of appeal in Bloemfontein heard the appeal on 11 May 2026. Goodall was among the appellants. Judgment was reserved and it’s not known when it is likely to be handed down.
Goodall’s statement cuts directly against the defence the other executives have advanced. In August 2025, Ord, Bodley, Missaikos, Nathan and Watson accused NTT of a “sinister campaign” against them.
They said NTT had known management had a potential interest in The Campus because it was negotiating to sell them its African business in a management buyout, and that NTT itself had devised a B-BBEE “warehousing” scheme.
They also said The Campus was sold to the highest bidder at a price within the range of independent valuations, that NTT publicly declared it had ratified the deal in January 2022, and that they had offered to hand The Campus back to NTT “with zero gain for us”.
Goodall dismissed the buyout argument. Their conduct “was not excused by any potential management buyout, which we knew would be a separate transaction”, he said.
NTT sued Goodall in the UK high court in January 2023, seeking to recover the $17.6-million retirement package he received in 2021. The settlement amount is about 70% of that figure.
The executives may also face criminal charges. Currency reported in July 2025 that the Hawks had taken statements after NTT laid a criminal complaint following the high court judgment.
Questions for NTT
TechCentral has asked NTT:
- Whether the settlement ends all proceedings against Goodall;
- Whether the amount was reduced in exchange for his admission;
- Whether Goodall has agreed to give evidence against his former colleagues;
- Whether NTT will hand his statement to the Hawks;
- How it responds to the other executives’ claim that it designed the empowerment structure itself; and
- How its governance failed to detect its CEO’s undisclosed interest.
However, NTT has declined to comment further while the proceedings are ongoing.
“I deeply regret my conduct and the harm it has caused NTT,” Goodall said. “I apologise unreservedly to NTT and all its employees.”
Questions for Goodall
TechCentral has sent Goodall the questions below and is awaiting his answers. The publication will publish his answers if and when it receives them.
- Do you confirm that you signed the statement, and that it is part of a settlement agreement with NTT dated 5 October 2026?
- Does the R208.6-million settle NTT’s UK high court claim, the South African proceedings against you, or both? Does it include the punitive costs order?
- Were you a party to the appeal against Judge Fisher’s judgment? If so, have you withdrawn?
- Why admit it now, nearly two years after the judgment?
- How large was your interest in the purchaser, and what did you stand to gain from the deal?
- Who were the nominees holding your interest, and who set up the structure?
- Did you or any of the others receive the “secret commission” mentioned in Dimension Data’s court papers?
- Your statement names Ord, Nathan, Missaikos and Bodley but not Bruce “Doc” Watson. Why? What part did Martin Epstein play?
- Have you agreed to give evidence or otherwise cooperate with NTT in the cases against the others?
- Have the Hawks contacted you or taken a statement from you?
- Does the settlement protect you from criminal prosecution? — (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media
