A legal battle between Debswana Diamond Company (Pty) Ltd and Infotrac in the alleged P110 million lawsuit is scheduled before High Court Judge Abednico Tafa for a pre-trial conference.
The parties are to appear before Judge Tafa on the 23 August 2021 for a pre-trial conference where the parties will agree on a trial dates and also for the court to establish the number of witnesses expected to testify in the matter.
Documents before court show that on June 10, 2020, Infotrac through its attorneys says the cause of action is recovery of a debt based on a breach of verbal consultancy agreement by the defendant.
“On or about the January 6, 2018 at Gaborone, the defendant, duly represented by its then managing director, the late Mr. Albert Milton, one Mr. Mazwigula, one Mr.Kewakae and one Mr. Keitumetse entered into an oral agreement in terms whereof the plaintiff agreed to provide consultancy services to the defendant,” the attorneys stated.
Court papers show that “The material terms of the oral consultancy service agreement between the parties were, inter alia, following that the plaintiff (Infotrac) would at special instances and request of the defendant (Debswana), render to the defendant, consultancy services, in the form of investigation of an alleged love relationship between Mr. Albert Milton and Candy Goodie, as well as favoritism at work on the latter by the former,” reads the cause of action suit.
In a notice to defend, Debswana denied the terms of the contract entered into between Infotrac and themselves and further argued that what they had contracted the firm for, they had paid for it.
The defendant further engaged a third party to facilitate discussions pertaining to settlement of the initial claim. This was not disputed by the defendant. The plaintiff on numerous occasions demanded the defendant to remedy the breach but the defendant failed despite its numerous undertaking to pay.
As a result of the breach, the plaintiff is entitled to recover all the monies due owing and payable to it for services it rendered to the defendant.
The plaintiff has claimed, as a result of the aforepleaded facts, it suffered contractual damages and is consequently entitled to recover the amount of its claim.
In one of the documents, the managing director of Infotrac, Debswana’s attorney John Carr-Hartley on May 19, 2020, wrote that they noted from his letter under reply that he will not agree to Debswana’s request for time to review information nor will he provide any further documentary evidence or information.
“For the sake of clarity, Debswana denies liability to Infotrac, whether in the respects alleged or the amount claimed, or at all,” Carr-Hartley said.
Debswana mining giant is represented by Armstrong Attorneys while Infotrac (Pty) Ltd is represented by Ngakaagae and Company.
