Pretoria on MyPR: South African Venture Capital Group who keeps staff and supplier capital:
In March 2022, the ICRD Group members received their final late payment. The team consisting of 14 members were paid two weeks late for their February 2022 scheduled payments. At the end of March 2022 no payments were made and it’s been down hill from there.
ICRD Group is a Venture Capital Investment group running ideation, incubation and business accelerator programmes with Lucky Litelu at the forefront. Partnered with them in some of their green economy and water tech development programmes were international consortiums and local government, publicly listed on their website as Technology and Innovation Agency, EW SETA, Innovate UK and more.
ICRD Group Staff, independent contractors, suppliers and programme beneficiaries waited weekly as they were promised payment. One Contractor stated “We were told payments were processed by the client and consequently we felt comfortable to loan from family and friends, thinking the payment was just a week away. Unfortunately, by the second week of April we were told the term processing payment does not mean it will be paid and that the CEO is doing all it takes to resolve the issue.” The issue is still unresolved. Four months later, the team and suppliers have not been paid. Meanwhile it appears the CEO had what was probably not a free white wedding which was share publicly on social media while his team and suppliers were still not paid.
Some team members have been asked to travel and work for free, while failing to pay rent or buy food at home. The end of April came about and no payments were still made. The project and operations leads were advise by Mr. Litelu that the client cannot pay because certain deliverables have not been met by ICRD Group. The team, desperate to complete the projects, came to the office and once again did all they could to somehow help ICRD Group generate income. BUT, they have not heard any updates. The CEO communicated that what was done was not sufficient for an invoice to be processed. “Then what happened to that processed payment?” said many team members and they were never answered.
“in 2021, we all worked hard on projects that were apparently paid for by the main 4IR Aquatech Accelerator project. When we enquired about payment or sent letters of demand to ICRD Group, we were advised that we were only commissioned for a programme that has not met the client’s deliverables. But we were never shown what the clients needs were or why they wont pay. Additionally, we should then be invoicing for the additional projects we worked on since we were independent contractors. But the CEO has ignored calls, emails and twice the Sheriff’s office has been to the offices to serve Mr. Litelu but he is conveniently never there.”
All too often, companies in the VC space take funds from government entities and misuse those funds. The rich get richer and are eating food and getting married and attending fancy events and even acquiring new staff while their team and suppliers are left destitute. The team made suggestions regarding ways to raise money, however the CEO has been ghosting the team and it is sad that he is all over media preaching entrepreneurship and economic transformation to create job opportunities.
“We’ve been looking for work here and there. The pain and struggle has been being promised payment week by week and trusting that person. Eventually in May 2022, majority of the team exited their contracts with ICRD Group.
After 2 months of working without pay, ICRD Group sent letters to the team at the end of May 2022 stating that all staffing opportunities will be on hold until 30 July 2022 because the company does not have any funds to keep them on board. During this time, it’s been business as usual, ICRD Group has been hosting events, hack-a-thons, interns, and appears to be gearing up for another accelerator programme now in August 2022. But where is the funds to pay suppliers and team members?
It is reported that beneficiary entrepreneurs from the accelerator programme have laughed and shouted at the team and CEO calling the programme a joke, because (according to them) promises were made and never saw light. Promises of a graduation that would link them with investors, NVC Level 2 qualifications and an implementation project with EWSETA. Some participants had not been paid their prize money for at least one of the ideation programmes managed by ICRD Group, even though the funders have confirmed payment had been made to the managing Group. Where are the funds?
For most accelerator and incubation programmes that run on government funding, the financial year end is commonly end of February. It is suspected that ICRD Group knew that they did not have any more funding to keep their staff and yet they did not advise them in time so they could seek other opportunities.
“There are many lies, and many broken promises and we are still not being informed of when we can be paid. The selfishness of ICRD Group goes as far as team members asking to purchase some of the furniture and the CEO saying yes and then ignoring any further communication. Trade Swaps with suppliers and partnerships took place, and anyone who is not ICRD Group were left wanting.” Quoted one senior ex contractor.
“Lack of empathy and honesty is how one would characterize this whole situation; we cannot avoid the fact that there was malpractice of funds and lack of integrity from Lucky Litelu who was busy getting married while his team had no food. This is a pattern and more will come out about the ICRD Group.” – Ex Contractor
“There was somewhat of a carelessness around the impact that this situation has on people’s livelihood. Poor communication mixed with lies found the team unable to prepare themselves adequately for what happened.” – Ex Contractor.
It is sad that trust is often placed in the hands of those professing to care about employment opportunities when in fact they appear to have abused their power. ICRD Group and Lucky Litelu will continue to receive government and investor funding and possibly never pay their team. When these situations occur, the hard workers will have to approach the court and wait months for money while the business owner continues to grow. “People were starving, for days, and all they needed was the truth to be delivered on time. Until now, we don’t know the truth. We don’t even know if the client was ever going to pay.”
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