One of the key players in the aborted sale of Dimension Data’s The Campus property has lashed out at the company’s former executives over an allegation that she misappropriated R5-million related to the transaction.
Sonja De Bruyn, founder of Identity Fund Managers, on Monday took strong exception to a statement by five former Dimension Data executives who were involved in what the high court last November described as a “fraudulent scheme” to enrich themselves through the sale of the sprawling Sandton property.
Read: Former Dimension Data execs accuse NTT of smear tactics
Most seriously, the five ex-executives — including former executive chairman Jeremy Ord — alleged that De Bruyn’s Identity Partners “remains in possession of about R5-million that was misappropriated from the fund in 2022”. (The statement was not signed by the sixth former executive implicated in the high court judgment handed down last November, former Dimension Data CEO Jason Goodall.)
The other five former executives earlier on Monday alleged in a statement that the bank account used in the name of the fund was opened by De Bruyn and that she “conceded that she had no authority to represent the fund”.
“Sonja’s statements in the media, including that she was ‘misled and taken advantage of’, are false. Her loaded statement that ‘white privileged or powerful men’ abused the BEE (black economic empowerment) structure for our own benefit is not only false, but also defamatory and designed to distract from her role in proposing and then implementing an NTT BEE front, despite certain of the executives’ best efforts to prevent that outcome,” the statement, which was signed by Ord, Saki Missaikos, Steven Nathan, Grant Bodley and Bruce (“Doc”) Watson, said.
But De Bruyn has hit back in a statement shared with TechCentral, saying the R5-million was not misappropriated and is being kept in escrow.
Escrow account
“It is false to allege that R5-million has been misappropriated by Identity Fund Managers,” De Bruyn said in the statement. “The amount in question relates to fees that were contractually and lawfully due to us as fund manager. These fees are consistent with industry norms and were payable to us at the time we ceased managing the fund in 2022.
“We instituted arbitration proceedings in relation to the payment of this fee. When we ceased acting as fund manager, knowing that there were legal matters pertaining to this transaction, we felt that it was responsible to put the funds in escrow for safeguarding until all the legal matters [were] settled, and this was the mandate of the escrow account with lawyers,” she stated.
Read: Former Dimension Data executives granted leave to appeal in Campus saga
“When the lawyers of the executives complained about this arrangement in 2023, we returned the funds from escrow into the fund management account, which had been dormant and should have been under the control of whoever their new fund manager would be. We sent the executives several legal letters regarding these arrangements, and neither they nor their lawyers ever responded to these points.”
She said the funds have never been used and remain available for inspection “at any time to demonstrate they have been held responsibly”.
“We believe that the way in which the executives have put this across to the press is another demonstration of how they obfuscate and manipulate facts to deflect from their own dishonesty and wrongdoing as clearly no funds have been misappropriated.”
Her statement added: “Throughout this terrible saga, the [former] executives consistently tried to draw Identity Fund Managers into a matter where it was clear from the start that we had no knowledge of their schemes and that there was no wrongdoing on our part. Now they are trying to further damage our names and reputations through this serious, baseless and malicious allegation of mishandling funds.”
Read: Dimension Data drags ex-bosses to court over Campus deal
De Bruyn also strongly denied an allegation by the former executives that the company colluded with Dimension Data – later NTT Data – to gain broad-based BEE credits.
“The executives’ narrative defies logic and is preposterous. It is patently false that a vendor loan of this nature could have been secret when it was made in full view of all parties involved in the deal and with all properly executed documentation.”
Update 1:
The five former Dimension Data executives late on Monday night issued a response to De Bruyn’s statement. They said (slight shortened):
“We maintain our allegation regarding the misappropriation of funds by Identity Partners. Identity Partners paid itself disputed fees out of a bank account in the name of the fund after it had voluntarily renounced its mandate to represent the fund. There is no invoice on record and this payment was never approved by the fund. The 2021 transfer was not notified to the new general partner and was only discovered in 2023. At that stage, Identity Partners claimed that the funds were being held in escrow, but could not produce an escrow agreement and the attorney in question confirmed, “I hold the funds in question for and on behalf of Identity Fund Managers (Pty) Ltd.” Identity remains in control of these funds to this day.
“Contrary to the statement, evidence of De Bruyn’s knowledge of the Executives’ indirect participation was provided in court.”
Update 2:
De Bruyn and Identity Fund Managers responded to the above statement with a follow-up statement on Tuesday morning, which stated the following (slightly shortened):
“Identity Fund Managers notes the response to its statement from the executives. We do not intend to respond individually to every claim or allegation made by this group of discredited individuals who we believe are trying to harass us through the media once again.
“Escrow accounts are an accepted trustworthy means of safeguarding funds, including those which are the subject of disputes such as the fees lawfully owed to IFM, so for the executives to dress this up as misappropriation is opportunistic and intended to harm our reputation. All the continuous bank statements they have of the funds intact provide transparency. It is therefore concerning that these have been overlooked, raising questions about the intent behind presenting a distorted narrative to the public.
“Arbitration proceedings are also a legitimate legal means by which such disputes are pursued and/or settled but the executives seem to prefer to misrepresent what has transpired to tarnish our names and to defame us through the press.” — © 2025 NewsCentral Media
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