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Publishing company Caxton has fired a broadside at bitter rival Novus Holdings over the emergence of a secret commission agreement with Lebone Litho Printers, the Novus empowerment partner in a huge contract with the Department of Basic Education.
Both Novus and Lebone insist there is “nothing untoward” about the commission payments of 10 to 15 percent Novus made to Lebone.
But Caxton, a minority shareholder in Novus, has taken the extraordinary step of demanding, via its lawyers, that Novus cancel the agreement and recoup the money paid to Lebone.
The current contract for printing and distributing school workbooks is said to be worth more than R2,8 billion over three years — and has just been extended for a further two years.
Novus, the listed printing giant unbundled by Naspers, and Lebone, a smaller black-owned printing house, have dominated the DBE printing contracts together with their logistics partner, DSV Solutions.
DSV is not a party to nor implicated in the commission agreement.
The Lebone-Novus joint venture has won tenders for workbooks since the project was initiated in 2010, though its success has been dogged by controversy from the start. — fin24.com.
Online Reporter