6 October 2020

Holding Statement – ISAT

Since September 2019, Internet Services and Technologies (ISAT), has engaged Dimension Data in numerous threatening correspondences regarding a service outage that had taken place six months earlier in March 2019.

Included in this was an unsubstantiated demand from his attorneys for in excess of R21-billion in damages.

Given this, Dimension Data sought the guidance of legal counsel, Eversheds Sutherland, who advised that there was and is no merit whatsoever in Mr Pearton’s claims. As a result, Dimension Data has at all times denied any potential liability.

Dimension Data nevertheless continued to engage with Mr Pearton and his attorneys in good faith, which culminated in a meeting in the presence of the attorneys on 2 December 2019 in an effort to address concerns. There was no resolution at that time.

Notwithstanding Dimension Data’s continued belief that there is no liability on its part, Mr Pearton was afforded the opportunity to substantiate his claim for R21-billion but was unable to do so.

It is worth noting that Mr Pearton has subsequently advised that the amount claimed would increase every time Dimension Data’s attorneys ‘irritated’ him.

As far back as 30 September 2019, Mr Pearton has advised that he intends instituting legal action, but has to date not done so. Instead, he has continued with a series of threatening, defamatory and blatantly untrue correspondence , in which he has now made threats to Dimension Data’s reputation, claiming that he will make use of social media as a means to force Dimension Data to enter into “settlement negotiations”.

As a result of these continued and escalating threats, Dimension Data’s attorneys sought to institute a cease and desist from further defamatory claims and continued harassment. On 25 September 2020, Dimension Data obtained a written undertaking from Mr Pearton’s attorneys in which he undertook to desist from, inter alia, publishing threatening, defamatory and factually untrue information about Dimension Data.

However, shortly after agreeing to this course of action, Mr Pearton resumed his unlawful conduct including publishing a public account of what he believes this situation to entail. As a result of this breach of undertaking, Dimension Data has now been compelled to institute a High Court application to enforce Mr Pearton’s undertaking and interdict him from persisting with his ongoing conduct.

Mr Pearton’s company ISAT is also still a client of Dimension Data as they continue to procure services from us (which is a contradiction of his own statement that Dimension Data’s services cannot be trusted).