Tjivikua says he was threatened

The defamation matter between Namibia University of Science and Technology (Nust) vice-chancellor Tjama Tjivikua and businessman Tommy Tjaronda, emanating from a soured City of Windhoek land deal, made another turn in the High Court Wednesday.

Tjivikua claims that Tjaranda not only badmouthed him on social media, but intimidated and threatened him to extort money.

Tjivikua and his wife, Neavera, filed for an urgent court order last year to stop Tjaronda from further damaging their reputations on social media.

The parties appeared on Wednesday before Judge Harold Geier for a status hearing after mediation failed last year.



Demanded N$2m

Tjivikua indicated he will bring a defamation action against Tjaronda ten days after the status hearing, while Tjaronda said he will launch a counterclaim.

Tjivikua said Tjaronda is demanding N$2 million for a deal that has not been fully realised.

According to Tjivikua's founding affidavit, Waterberg Investments submitted a tender to the City of Windhoek around 2015 to purchase and develop a property in Khomasdal measuring 10 301 square metres.

The company, owned by Tjivikua, was allocated the property, which has a purchase price of about N$20 million. The company proposed to develop the property in phases - residential units (phase 1), commercial units (phase 2) and a service station (phase 3). According to Tjivikua, sometime after the land allocation Tjaronda approached him to inform him he had financiers.

He said no terms of payment were initially discussed.

According to him, Tjaronda introduced him to two promoters of Convic, a property development company that was willing to fund the project.

He said towards the final stages of the negotiations with Convic, Tjaronda approached him to discuss payment for his middleman services.

It was agreed that Tjaronda should be paid 7% of the profit, due and payable to him after the completion of phase 1. The estimated profit after phase 1 was N$8 million.



Deal collapsed

According to Tjivikua the land purchasing deal collapsed, but upon engaging his lawyers, he won back the land from the City.

Tjaronda then introduced him to a certain I-Chaun Kuo and others as financiers, who own Dynotronics Property Investments.

With regard to the new agreement Tjaronda would be paid a 3% commission.

However, Tjivikua claims that the financing agreement did not go ahead as planned and he had to provide the N$8 million to transfer the property from the municipality.



Lunacy

“Once more this agreement collapsed because Dynotronics did not provide all the funding necessary to acquire the property from the City of Windhoek, nor did they commence with phase 1 as agreed. Instead, Waterberg Investments was obliged to partly fund the acquisition of the project (sic).” Tjivikua said phase 1 one did not proceed as agreed and sometime in February 2017, Tjaronda began demanding money.

“I informed him at that time, that the agreement was still in the process of being implemented and that he must, at the very least, wait until the property is transferred and the construction of phase 1 is initiated,” said Tjivikua.

“Towards the middle of 2017 the telephone calls from Tjaronda intensified, followed by episodes of complete lunacy and rudeness.”

According to Tjivikua, Tjaronda started demanding 10% of the property's purchase price, approximately N$2 million.

“Tjaronda became extremely rude on the phone and would often swear at me. He became very aggressive and forceful on the phone, demanding an upfront payment, which made no sense at all.”

Tjivikua said he blocked several of Tjaronda's numbers, as he had resorted to using other cellphones.



Threats and intimidation

He said towards December 2017, it became apparent that the financier did not have sufficient funding and the entire deal collapsed.

“He continued to intimidate and threaten me and tried to extort money out of me. He would contact politicians and others and inform them that I had cheated him out of money.”

Tjivikua also claims that Tjaronda behaved rudely towards his wife and spread rumours, while trying to get the transfer of the property cancelled. In a Facebook post on 6 October last year Tjaronda is said to have accused the Tjivikuas of being crooks, who resorted to bullying tactics “with their perceived political power”.

Tjivikua was also allegedly warned that he would be dealt with politically. He said Tjaronda's slanderous and defamatory Facebook and Twitter posts had gone viral.

The Tjivikuas want the court to order Tjaronda to remove all the defamatory statements he posted on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

In his answering affidavit, Tjaronda said the statements he had made are fair comments under the circumstances. He further denied that any of the statements made on social media are unfounded, untruthful or defamatory.

He said his statements are a reproduction of what had been carried in the media and online reports.

He said he had been introduced to Tjivikua by his uncle at a time when he (Tjivikua) was struggling to raise funds to secure the erf.

“Together with my partner (Diego Majiedt), we saw an opportunity to structure a deal for the applicants and also earn fees for our efforts.

“Unfortunately, the applicants did not turn out to be persons on whose word one can rely. The applicants have sought to cheat myself and my partner,” Tjaronda claimed.

The matter has been postponed to 13 February. In 2016 the High Court issued a gagging order against Tjaronda and his then girlfriend, who had taken to social media to accuse M&Z of ignoring their complaints.

ELLANIE SMIT