SPYL fends off N$14m lawsuit

The Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) has fended off a lawsuit in which a close corporation that supplied a computerised membership system to it sued the youth league for N$14 million.

This is after an agreement between the SPYL and the close corporation, True Media Trading CC, was declared void and set aside by judge George Coleman in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.

Coleman declared the agreement, signed on 9 July 2018, void after finding that it is vague and cannot be enforced.

True Media Trading CC sued the SPYL for about N$14,05 million, claiming the organisation did not pay it for the supply of a computerised membership system.

True Media Trading’s financial claim did not succeed, but Coleman ordered that the SPYL should within the next three months return all computer hardware, software and accessories that the close corporation supplied to it.

In terms of the agreement between True Media Trading and the SPYL, the close corporation had to supply and install a computerised membership system and supply 1,05 million membership cards to the youth league, Swapo and the party’s women’s league.

According to True Media Trading, it could not supply all of the membership cards because the SPYL engaged another supplier to provide the cards.

The close corporation claimed the contract price of about N$14,05 million was due and payable to it on 10 November 2018.

However, according to the SPYL, True Media Trading supplied only 6 000 membership cards to it and stopped with the supply after its system and hardware broke down.

Coleman noted that evidence before the court indicated the SPYL and the close corporation intended to have a joint venture arrangement.

True Media Trading delivered computer equipment and software to the SPYL and installed a membership system that worked well for a short while and then malfunctioned, Coleman recounted.

The youth league and the close corporation are now at a point where the SPYL is in possession of the supplied membership system with its hardware and software, but cannot use it, the judge also noted.

He remarked that the agreement on which True Media Trading based its claim against the SPYL was depicted as a joint venture agreement which reads more like a memorandum of understanding than a commercial contract.

“The agreement consists of 19 clauses and does not contain any enforceable term,” Coleman said.

He also said in his view the agreement is void because of vagueness, with one of its clauses determining a purchase price without any indication when it should be paid, who should pay and exactly what the payment would be for.

Coleman ordered that the SPYL and True Media Trading should each pay its own legal costs in the matter.

The close corporation was represented by Johan van Vuuren.

Eva Shifotoka, instructed by Lucius Murorua of the law firm Murorua Kurtz Kasper Inc, represented the SPYL.