Cape Town - Hosken Consolidated Investment chief executive John Copelyn has written to staff at e.tv and eNCA telling how his business relationship fell apart with chairman Marcel Golding and why the company acted against him.
Golding was facing a disciplinary hearing on gross misconduct charges when he resigned.
His decision to invest R24 million in shareholder money in a company with which HCI subsidiary and e.tv owners Sabido did business was the sole reason for Golding’s suspension, Copelyn told staff at eNCA and e.tv on Tuesday.
Golding resigned on Monday, the same day the Labour Court dismissed his application to stop the hearing. HCI non-executive director and former minister Barbara Hogan resigned on the same day.
Golding said his suspension was because of his resistance to what he called political interference by HCI’s major shareholder, the SA Clothing and Textile Workers Union (Sactwu), in e.tv’s news content. Sactwu has dismissed this as untrue.
In his four-page letter, written as chairman of Sabido, Copelyn said HCI financial director Kevin Govender would be acting chief executive of Sabido in place of Golding.
Asked to comment, Golding said: “ A letter from Mr Copelyn to staff has been forwarded to the press and I have been asked to comment against a deadline. I have been advised that the letter makes a number of factually incorrect highly defamatory allegations against me outside of the court papers.
“A number of these allegations were not made in the court papers by HCI but are now made by Mr Copelyn (who elected to not depose to an affidavit under oath). I suggest you seek legal advice before publication of the contents of what appears to be highly defamatory internal correspondence. All my rights are expressly reserved. “
Copelyn, who was a Sactwu leader for about two decades, wrote that he and Golding had worked together for a long time and built several successful businesses together.
HCI had Sactwu’s support during tough times.
Last year, it was agreed that Sactwu would swop R1.5 billion in HCI shares to invest in Sabido. “When Marcel sought to buy the media business from HCI over the last year, Sactwu was the party he approached to be his media partner in this bid… Sactwu would have agreed to this partnership had it not been for its disillusionment when advised of (Golding’s) secret share dealings.
“I want to assure you that there was only one reason for Marcel’s suspension: his decision to spend R24m of shareholder money investing in a supplier retail company with whom we do business.
“Marcel’s trades were concealed from the company, its board who had to authorise the trades, and shareholders of Sabido – who had to authorisesuch a purchase. The shares were paid for through a private arrangement Marcel made with a broker and were not registered in our name,” Copelyn wrote.
“They were held in the name of a banking institution with an understanding they would be transferred to the name of a party, the identity of whom Marcel would disclose to them, but has not.”
Golding had made a “serious blunder when he accumulated shares in another company without financial approval. Worse, he has to date made no apology.”
On the allegations of interference in e.tv’s editorial content, Copelyn wrote: “We’ve built this channel as our contribution to a lasting democracy, free of interference, intimidation or attempts to prejudice its independence. Nothing has compromised that, and nothing will while we own it.
“The principles of independence and integrity are central to e.tv and eNCA’s success and are not up for negotiation.”
Cape Times