Justicia Shipena
The High Court on Tuesday ruled that prominent lawyer and former Mobile Telecommunications Company (MTC) board chairperson Dirk Conradie attempted to divert the awarding of an advertising tender away from the highest-rated bidder.
High Court judge Thomas Masuku said evidence indicated that the MTC board meeting held in Lisbon, Portugal, was convened for one purpose only: to award the advertising contract to the bidder that had emerged top after the evaluation process.
The court found that the evaluation had already been completed.
The meeting agenda, according to Masuku, confirmed the board’s expectation to award the contract based on those results.
The court found that Conradie attempted to persuade board members to divert the contract and award it to DV8 Saatchi & Saatchi.
Masuku said Conradie claimed during the meeting that he did not know DV8, but evidence showed this was not true.
“This was clearly false, as it is in evidence that he personally met the directors of DV8 at his office on 12 June 2012,” he said.
Masuku ruled that Conradie used his position as chairperson of the MTC board in 2012 for the gratification of himself or another to influence a procurement contract.
He said tender information was restricted and that only a designated procurement officer was allowed to engage with bidders. He said bidders were not allowed to speak to other MTC employees, including board members.
He said Conradie and his co-accused Sarah Damases’ call for a meeting with the directors of DV8 Saatchi & Saatchi was unlawful and inappropriate, and it amounted to a betrayal of the MTC board, which required that no tender information be disclosed unless authorised.
Masuku determined that the state had conclusively demonstrated that Conradie and Damases had violated section 42 of the Anti-Corruption Act.
Furthermore, he said the evidence also established a conspiracy to commit the offence, finding both accused guilty on that charge.
He, however, found that the state failed to prove that MTC is a public company and that Damases is a public officer. On that basis, Conradie was found not guilty of the charge relating to the use of public offices for gratification.
The matter was postponed to 26 February 2026 for sentencing submissions.
