How Mascom lost the 'Derby'
Innocent Selatlhwa | Tuesday March 7, 2023 06:00
In one corner were Chalegwa Mabua and his company, Botsepa Agencies (Pty) Ltd trading as Ngami Horse Racing while on the other corner stood Mascom Wireless.
Mabua and his company approached the court on urgency after the mobile phone company dumped him and his Shashe Race track for a different venue and technical sponsor. Physically in court, Mabua came alone with just his three attorneys, Njiramanda Mbewe-Boatey, Dr Bernard Tubego-Bulawayo, and Kukie Hirschfeld.
In Mascom’s corner, there were at least five of the company’s executive management members and their attorney, Mike Rasetshwane, who was accompanied by two other attorneys.
To emphasise, Mabua was fighting ‘a giant’. Mabua’s attorneys in their papers describe him as a small businessman while they refer to Mascom as a multi-million pula mobile telecommunications company and also a wealthy corporate.
Just after court commenced at around 9:20am, Kebonang advised the parties to negotiate a settlement as it looked like a simple matter to him. The two parties through their attorneys pointed fingers at each other over failure to have had a settlement already.
They showed doubts that anything would come out but went on to consult their lawyers so they come up with an agreement. Though Kebonang granted 10 minutes for their negotiations, two hours later the parties had not reached an agreement. As lawyers negotiated outside the courtroom, the parties would not even interact despite having worked together for at least 15 years.
Mabua was seething with anger and sat as far away from the Mascom team as he could. He was convinced Mascom was bullying him and that he would win the case. After their negotiation talks collapsed, the parties got back in court without an agreement. Kebonang expressed disappointment that the parties could not at least agree to partner for one last time and negotiate what happens after the event. It would, however, come to the fore that the relationship between the two had broken down irretrievably.
While Mascom was open to working with Mabua one last time, Rasetshwane said that they would rather give him money that he could have gotten as proceeds and not have him as part of the event. Mabua’s attorneys would have none of it.
They argued that they wanted more than just money, but principle. They also stated that it was high time corporates knew that ordinary people also have rights.
This was the end of negotiations and the parties faced off. At the end of it all, it ended in a victory for Mabua who left the courtroom in a celebratory mood. At that point, the Mascom staff and their attorneys remained behind in court. Speaking to The Monitor outside court, Tubego-Bulawayo expressed their delight at the outcome. “This is a great victory for creatives. It is time creations of the mind are protected from corporates,” he said.