/ 29 August 1997

Callback case on hold after lawyers stuck in lift

FRIDAY, 11.00AM:

The urgent high court application by callback operators to overturn a ban on their operations by the SA Telecommunication Regulatory Authority was postponed on Thursday when attorneys representing the SA Callback Association failed to appear in court after getting stuck in a lift in the high court building.

Satra agreed to a postponement and asked the association to set a new date for the hearing.

Satra, meanwhile, reiterated its intention not to lay charges against callback operators while the metter is still being heard in court, but added it will charge operators who continue their operations after the September 1 deadline, once the court has ruled in the matter.

SA Callback Association chairman Gianfranco Cicogna said on Thursday that the association had receeived a letter from Satra informing it of Satra’s intention not to institute charges while the court action was ongoing, and that the association took this to mean that Satra was no longer standing by its September 1 deadline for callback operators to close shop.

Satra said it remains “unmoved by the media postuirng of the callback association.