Law professor is nothing but a conman, says investor

It was an attractive proposition - pocketing a major slice of billions of dollars allegedly earmarked for projects in eSwatini, including the construction of a coal-fired power station, a social upliftment project, and creation of a free trade zone.

Pretoria doctor Francois Olivier jumped at the offer that he says was dangled before him by law professor Frans Whelpton, apparently with the backing of King Mswati and the eSwatini government.

But now Olivier is suing Whelpton in the Pretoria high court for R6m, saying the former Unisa emeritus professor's grand promises were no more than a con. He says his case is just the tip of the iceberg and that over the years Whelpton has pocketed about R100m from up to 40 people.

Whelpton - who was private secretary to National Party minister Fanie Botha in the 1980s - has hit back with a defamation action against Olivier, demanding R1m in damages to his reputation after Olivier sent an e-mail to 19 people describing Whelpton's alleged fraud, which Olivier says was perpetuated over 20 years.

In his court papers, Olivier says he first met Whelpton in December 1998 and over the next few weeks Whelpton told him he had very good contacts in the then Swaziland and "attractive prospects to procure rights and business opportunities".

Whelpton, Olivier says, claimed to be in line for funding from the UN to record and codify Swazi customary law. The first amount he says Whelpton cited was $40m (about R603m), but as the years went by the professor raised the figure he was expecting or had already been paid by the UN to more than $200m.

Whelpton suggested they form a company together to take advantage of the opportunities in eSwatini and promised him half of the money he was expecting from the UN, Olivier says. When Whelpton asked Olivier to pay him R20,000 a month for a year to meet his expenses while he waited for the UN money, Olivier says he willingly agreed.

That, Olivier says in his court papers, was the start of a series of "fraudulent misrepresentations" by Whelpton, which included that he had acquired rights to the:

• Development of a free trade zone in eSwatini;
• Construction of a coal-fired power station and associated infrastructure; and
• Establishment of a "social upliftment programme".

Olivier said he continued making payments of hundreds of thousands of rands to Whelpton in the expectation that the eSwatini projects would eventually pay off, but in August last year he realised all of Whelpton's promises were "misrepresentations and that there exists no prospect that [I] would procure any form of profit share".

Olivier says he has paid Whelpton a total of R6m but received nothing in exchange.

Last month Olivier sent his e-mail to other associates of Whelpton, describing it as a warning that the professor could be milking some of them in the same way. Olivier estimated in the e-mail that Whelpton had persuaded about 40 different people to part with a total of R100m.

Olivier says he has paid Whelpton a total of R6m but received nothing in exchange.

"All these projects were repeatedly confirmed through hundreds of mails, letters and other supporting documentation, month after month, which I now believe to be mostly forged," Olivier's e-mail said.

"The same names under Swazi letterheads were used to mislead the readers, such as HMK [His Majesty the King], Prince Mangaliso Dlamini, the attorney-general, the prime minister, the central bank … to name a few."

Whelpton - who has lodged notice of his intention to defend Olivier's legal action - this week issued a separate defamation summons against Olivier over the e-mail and included a copy of it as an exhibit in his court papers. He said in the summons that the entire contents of the e-mail were "wrongful and defamatory".

Whelpton referred the Sunday Times to his lawyers, who said they could not discuss details of his response to Olivier's action in the Pretoria court until it had become part of the court record. But they said Whelpton had provided "ample documentation" to support his case.

However, one of Whelpton's central claims - that the UN is providing millions of dollars for his work on recording customary law in eSwatini - could not be confirmed this week. A spokesperson for the UN in SA, Zeenat Abdool, told the Sunday Times none of the UN agencies operating in SA had any record of dealing with Whelpton.

Seven years ago, in a separate case, a Pretoria court ordered Whelpton to pay R10m each to two doctors, Reynhardt van Rooyen and Johannes Kok, after an alleged eSwatini health-care project in which Whelpton promised them a leading role failed to materialise.

Questions about the case were sent to the eSwatini government but there was no response.