A BUSINESSMAN is suing a woman who was supposed to help him buy a coveted piece of municipal land in Windhoek, after the deal went wrong.
The sale of the property was approved by the Windhoek City Council, but failed to get the go-ahead from former regional and local government minister Sophia Shaningwa.
An employee of the Social Security Commission, Johanna Shikongo, was paid N$550 000 after she agreed to act as a “technical consultant” who would secure the purchase of a piece of land measuring more than 37 000 square metres in the Avis area of Windhoek for the company Lee’s Investments, but since the sale did not go through, she should return the money, the company is claiming in a case it has lodged in the Windhoek High Court.
Shikongo is opposing the company’s claim against herself.
The hearing of oral testimony on the claim against Shikongo and the close corporation Bongola Investment Projects CC is scheduled to continue before judge Herman Oosthuizen today.
According to businessman Cheng-Yuan Lee, who is also known as Leonard Lee, his company, Lee’s Investments, and Shikongo in November 2012 signed an agreement in terms of which Shikongo was to act as a “technical consultant” to secure the purchase of a piece of land, registered as Erf R/2621, in Avis, from the City of Windhoek for the close corporation Landscape Development CC, in which Lee had a majority membership stake.
The agreement also stated that Shikongo was to be paid N$1 million for her services if the land was sold to Landscape Development CC for less than N$15 million, while she was to be paid N$750 000 if the city sold the land to the close corporation for more than N$15 million.
The agreement included a clause in which it is stated that Lee’s Investments would pay Shikongo for her services within three days after an agreement for the sale of Erf R/2621, Avis, had been signed between the Windhoek municipal council and Landscape Development CC. In another clause, it is stated that Shikongo would return the consulting fee paid to herself if the ownership of the land in question was not transferred to Landscape Development CC and registered in its name due to the sale being cancelled by the Windhoek municipal council.
According to Lee, who is the owner of the Yang Tze restaurant and building in Klein Windhoek and also developed the China Town shopping complex in Windhoek’s Northern Industrial Area, his idea was to develop another China Town on the Avis land, which is situated between Avis Road and the part of Sam Nujoma Drive leading out of Windhoek towards Hosea Kutako International Airport and Gobabis.
Lee, who has already testified during the hearing of his company’s claim against Shikongo and Bongola Investment Projects CC, has informed the court that Shikongo approached him and his wife during 2013, and asked to be paid an advance on the commission it was agreed she would be paid. A payment of N$50 000 was then made to Shikongo in November 2013.
According to Shikongo, that payment was made a day after the Windhoek City Council approved the sale of the land to Landscape Development CC at a price of N$14,983 million.
Lee has also told the court that his company made a further payment of N$500 000 to Shikongo – but that money was paid by cheque to Bongola Investment Projects CC, at Shikongo’s request.
During 2015, though, Shikongo informed him and his wife that the minister of regional and local government refused to authorise the sale of the land as approved by the city council, and the relationship between him and Shikongo subsequently deteriorated, Lee said.
Shikongo is denying that she is liable to pay back the N$550 000 she received from Lee’s Investments.
In a plea filed at the court, she stated that her agreement with the company was that she would try to secure the city council’s approval of the sale of Erf R/2621 to Landscape Development CC. She succeeded with that, and was never obliged in terms of the agreement to effect the registration or transfer of the property in the name of Landscape Development CC, she also stated in her plea.
If the court were to find that she was under an obligation to have a written sales agreement concluded and to have the property transferred and registered in the name of the close corporation, it was her stance that she was unable to meet such obligations due to circumstances beyond her control, since the minister’s refusal to approve the sale made it impossible for her to have the sale go through, Shikongo has also pleaded.
Testifying yesterday, Shikongo insisted she was entitled to be paid for the effort and skills it took from her to win the city council’s approval for the sale of the land.
She said she expended time and effort to get the council’s approval for the transaction, and Lee “cannot benefit for free”.
She added that her obligations in terms of the agreement with Lee’s company stopped with the city council’s approval of the deal, and she could not ask the minister to approve the council’s decision, as that would have amounted to corruption.
Shikongo also said that as she understood the agreement she and Lee signed in November 2012, she would have had to pay back the money she received from the company only if the city council cancelled the transaction – which the council did not do.
Shikongo is being represented by lawyers Thabang Phatela and Samson Enkali. Lee’s Investments is represented by Andries van Vuuren and Ralph Behrens.
