Former ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa has shockingly told his ex-lawyer Brian Kahn, who was demanding legal fees payment from him, that R100 000 is nothing to him and when he pays him he could take it and throw it into the dustbin.
Phosa said this in one of the transcribed telephone conversations with Kahn when the latter was nagging him to settle his legal bill of over R300 000 on September 27 2018. “I am just waiting for this deal to happen. When it happens, why would R100k be something in our lives, it is nothing. You can throw it in the dustbin, it’s nothing. My relationship with you is not money, Brian. It is more than that, it is honour, it is honour,” he said.
Kahn has attached the transcribed conversation in the court papers he filed in the Joburg High Court for a court order to force Phosa to settle the bill racked up during a legal battle with Absa.
He has also withdrawn as Phosa’s attorney of record in the case and this might result in a writ of execution being granted against the ANC veteran. According to the court papers, which are in our possession, Kahn texted Phosa to ask him about the outstanding payment after several invoices he e-mailed to him and his personal assistant since 2017 were not paid.
Phosa replied by asking Kahn why he was angry with him because he had supported him
when he was in the ANC, to which he replied he was not angry but disappointed (at how things have turned out) because he was failing to pay him. Phosa: “Why do you speak in such an angry tone?” Kahn: “It is not an angry [tone] Mathews, it is disappointed that really what it is.” Phosa: “Brian when I was [in] ANC I paid you a lot of money. I supported you all the way, why would you be angry about what? Now, now?”
When Kahn told him he was angry he had been sending him from pillar to post, Phosa apologised but insisted that R100 000 was not money to him and promised that he would
speak to one of his colleagues to sort the matter out. “Brian, Brian. I didn’t know. I must apologise there, it is not even an issue about that, there is not even an issue about that.
“Then I will speak to Debbie, there is not even an issue. If I have made a mistake, I apologise. “But it is not even money for us, R100k, seriously. It is not even money. I will pay it to you. I have just done very nice deals. Next month I will probably just settle you. I won’t walk away from you, but I wouldn’t want to owe you money, okay?” Kahn said the payment never materialised. Explaining how the quantum was computed, Kahn said he represented Phosa and his business partners after Absa took them to the court.
Phosa was supposed to have paid the bill in R50 000 instalments, but the legal fees were now over R300 000 after accruing interest. Kahn said he took the matter to court after Phosa disagreed with him about the 24% interest he had charged on the principal debt.
He said he was disheartened that the former Mpumalanga premier had failed to pay him while living in the lap of luxury. Phosa said he was unable to comment because the matter is sub judice but said Kahn recorded him secretly.
