Ignores suppliers and defaults on promises of payment

<p>Our small consultancy has been dealing with Kayisa Herman Dube who secured one of our senior consultants as a speaker for a conference held in March 2017.  Our consultant received short/little notice for preparation and research of the requested presentation and also stated a concern, having worked with Herman before that payment has not been received for a previous presentation already delivered in 2016.</p> <p> </p> <p>Mr Dube promised that Nduna Project Consulting was now "under new management" and that he could personally assure us that payment would be made. A week before the scheduled presentation he contacted our consultant and asked whether the 1 hour presentation could be merged into a 3 hour workshop (something that with short notice would not have been possible) and for the agreed rate would not have been viable. Our senior consultant then suggested that one of our other Experience Consultants would be able to assist. During that time, a second presentation topic was researched and compiled.</p> <p> </p> <p>As our invoice was submitted and requesting payment on or before the date of delivery of said presentation we were slightly worried when payment was not made as promised. We contacted Herman on the 5th of April (after being promised payment on the 4th) and he committed to having the invoice settled on or before the 7th. the 7th came and went and when we contacted him on the 17th requesting proof of payment he was stating cashflow issues due to a Government Department not settling their account. We continued to phone (whereupon Mr Dube would end all our calls), phoned from our office lines (where we would remain silent when we answered) and even went as far as loading  a caller identification app on his smartphone which was then published on Twitter (on the same day as our calls).</p> <p> </p> <p>On the 25th of April he committed to settling half before the close of the week. When our offices contacted him today (10 May 2017)  he stated that he was in a meeting and put the phone down in the Directors ear. He later sent an sms stating that "The issue of payment is still being worked on. This week' even though we have confirmed with the government department in question in attendance on the day that their account had been settled.  </p> <p> </p> <p>He has now committed to (again) to making a payment this week and that "this chapter will be closed".</p> <p>We have dealt with a lot of conference organisers but have never had such a bad experience in dealing with such an unprofessional business owner. You cannot get angry with your suppliers if you cannot meet your obligations and the fact that you refuse to communicate as a responsible business owner just shows the values your organisation projects. I would not recommend you to any of our customers and/or suppliers and hope that other small business owners do not have to work with this organisation.</p>