Tiyende Telecommunications will this week issue a final legal notice to Itec SA, severing their three-year relationship.
Furthermore, Tiyende wishes for the market to know that it is in no way associated with Itec anymore, even though Itec says the contrary.
Tiyende director Shaka Sisulu, grandson of ANC stalwart Walter Sisulu, and former COO of the joint venture - called Itec Telecommunication, but referred to in the marketplace as Itec Tiyende - says different visions and management approaches were some of the main reasons the companies are parting ways.
However, a lack of trust was the nail in the coffin for the "disintegrating" relationship, according to him.
"Towards the end, Itec did not trust Tiyende executives to deliver the business, and Tiyende, in turn, was wary of their intentions," says Sisulu.
Sisulu says the deteriorating relationship stopped short of fronting or window-dressing, but did speak to a general problem in the industry when it comes to black economic empowerment (BEE) deals.
"I don't believe there in an intention to follow the spirit of BEE - companies do just enough to get by. It is a very sad state of affairs," he says.
He notes that BEE partners, for example, don't get discount when buying into a company and maintains "it is the BEE partners that come off second best in the process".
Tiyende's board includes industry heavyweights like Max Sisulu, Eddie Funde, Ian Deetlefts and Anthony Stafford.
The Itec Tiyende deal was signed in 2005 and the transaction value was in the region of R20 million. The 50:50 joint venture clients included National Treasury and the Department of Public Works and Administration.
Disputing the matter
Sisulu says even though the break-up with Itec has been coming for a while - discussions have been taking place "for months" - the company continued to do business under the name of Itec Tiyende, something it has to stop immediately.
He says Itec appointed a former Tiyende associate Simbo Ntshinka as a general manager in the company, a factor that is contributing to the impression that the companies are still associated with each other.
"The fact is the Tiyende executives stopped working in the Itec offices some time last year already - Tiyende no longer has any association with Itec," adds Sisulu.
The office of Itec's CEO, Jacques Duyver, referred ITWeb's queries to Itec representative Ingrid Green. Green said Sisulu's version of events, as they unfolded between Tiyende and Itec, "grossly misrepresent the facts". She said Ntshinka was Itec Tiyende's executive director.
Ntshinka, when contacted, said he represents the legal entity Itec Tiyende, which is a growing business, a trading company, and has no intention to close.
"I do not represent the Tiyende consortium; I represent the company they formed in conjunction with Itec in 2005," said Ntshinka. "We are trading as usual and have no future plans to close down."
Green could not be reached for further comment on the relationship between Tiyende and Itec.
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