Gangster State

Empire Technology. Curious, I copied the emails to the Edison address,
and they seemed to go through.
When I asked Vivian Reddy about the close links between Empire
Technology and Edison, his spokesperson, Brian Mpono, responded
rather aggressively. ‘Your unsubstantiated malicious false allegations
are considered hostile and offensive,’ he huffed. ‘Empire and Edison
Power Group are two separate entities. Vivian Reddy is not involved in
any manner whatsoever with Empire Technology.’ He said Edison and
Empire did not share an office in Umhlanga, but failed to explain why
the two companies listed the same address on their websites. He did,
however, admit that Shantan’s partner in Empire Technology was
linked to Edison. ‘Yuri Mohan does some consulting work for Edison
Power,’ Mpono told me.
‘Both companies are independent entities and there is no cross-
shareholding whatsoever and they operate in different ambits of
business,’ Mohan concurred.
I got the distinct impression that Edison and Vivian Reddy did not
want me sniffing around Shantan’s work in the Free State. When I first
sent him queries, Mpono was quick to fire off this warning: ‘[Vivian
Reddy] is very principled and does not hesitate to report
misrepresentations and false perceptions created by the media to the
Press Ombudsman and in some cases [he has] even sued.’
Then something strange happened. In response to my queries about
the apparent links between Edison and Empire Technology, Mpono
made this claim: ‘Mr Reddy is currently in litigation with the Mail &
Guardian for defamation so this issue is sub judice.’ But I later learnt
this was not the case. The Mail & Guardian said they were not being
sued by either Vivian Reddy or Edison. Mpono subsequently claimed