Whitney trustee 'sought killing'

 

Whitney trustee 'sought killing'

 Independent online (SA) 
Whitney trustee 'sought killing'
The Cape High Court has heard that a senior executive of American singer Whitney Houston's Foundation for Children demanded that a local Nedbank executive be... (photo: Getty Images/Frederick M. Brown)

 

 

	John Yeld     November 29 2006 at 03:21PM

The Cape High Court has heard that a senior executive of American singer Whitney Houston's Foundation for Children demanded that a local Nedbank executive be "eliminated" because the foundation was frustrated over ticket sales for the singer's then upcoming tour of South Africa. When South African lawyer Steve Raney, from the law firm employed by Houston's organisation to handle the tour's legal aspects, queried what he meant, the secretary of the board of trustees of the foundation, Scott Hilthey, allegedly replied: "I want him killed." This was Raney's testimony on Tuesday, in the defamation case in which writer and political commentator Ronald Suresh Roberts is suing Johncom Media Investments for R300 000 for an allegedly defamatory article that appeared in the Sunday Times in 2004.

The article, headed "The Unlikeable Mr Roberts", includes allegations that Roberts had been told to leave Deneys Reitz after making private business arrangements with the Whitney Houston organisation that created a conflict of interest for the law firm.

'I want him killed'

Raney, who had joined Deneys Reitz at about the same time as Roberts in August 1994, was the firm's senior lawyer dealing with the Whitney Houston tour. Roberts worked with him as his junior.

Raney testified that Roberts was indirectly responsible for Deneys Reitz being awarded the tour work. A prestigious New York law firm, where Roberts had been employed before coming to South Africa in 1994, had recommended Deneys Reitz.

Raney and Roberts had worked together for the tour, but Raney said on Tuesday that he had not known that Roberts had been a local executive for the foundation at the time.

Raney testified about a meeting in Johannesburg that he and Roberts had attended with Hilthey and other Whitney Houston organisation executives on about November 4, 1994.

"There were negotiations that ran late into the night and there was a large degree of frustration around ticket sales and Nedbank's ability to provide access to people (for the concert)," he said.

"Computicket was too exclusive in its reach and it was preferable for the concert to reach more people if tickets were sold through various branches of the People's Bank."

He did not explain the connection between Nedbank and Computicket.

Raney said the frustration had got to the point where Hilthey had said: "I want John McCall (operations director of Nedbank), eliminated."

Raney said: "I asked him what he meant. He replied 'I want him terminated'.

"I said I did not understand what that meant. He said, 'I want him killed'.

"I said clearly that Deneys Reitz could not accept a mandate like that. He said, 'then you're fired'. I said, 'Are you certain?' He said 'Yes'."

Raney testified that he had then said to Roberts: "Come, let's go". But that Roberts had elected to remain behind.

Although it was about 1am, Raney said he had phoned the firm's senior partner to explain what had happened.

When Raney arrived at work the next morning, a fax terminating the firm's services, apart from taxation relating to ticket sales, had already arrived.

Asked whether Hilthey had not been speaking metaphorically, Raney replied: "I did ask him on two occasions what he meant. Metaphorical or not, it was not a mandate the firm could execute."

During a brief break in proceedings soon after Raney's testimony on Tuesday, Roberts remarked to journalists: "It's not Days of Our Lives now, it's 'Days of our Deaths'."

He was referring to a quip by Treatment Action Campaign leader Zackie Achmat last week, that the trial was better than an episode of soapie The Days of Our Lives.

The trial continues on Wednesday.