MARIAM ISA, Johannesburg | Thursday 10.30am.
SOUTH Africa’s Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri said she will challenge a high court order delaying her approval of the winning bidder of the country’s third mobile phone licence.
In documents set to be presented to the court on Friday, Matsepe-Casaburri will argue that an interdict preventing her from acting on the selection of Saudi-backed Cell-C was inappropriate, she said in a statement.
”…Any piece-meal, premature and interim determination and interruption of the…process of awarding the third cellular licence will cause substantial and irreparable damage to all parties concerned,” she said.
NextCom, one of the losing bidders in the controversial selection process, won a court order delaying government approval of the recommendation of Cell-C by the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (Satra).
Matsepe-Casaburri had been set to make a decision after considering Satra’s final choice for at least five working days.
The unnecessary delay was bad for South Africa’s overseas investment profile and carried the risk of substantial damage to the other five bidders competing for a licence with an estimated value of $200 million, the minister said.
”The capacity for the creation of employment is substantially reduced. The income generated from the proceeds helps in the reduction of normal debt,” she said.
Cell-C, which is backed by Saudi conglomerate Saudi Oger and U.S. telecoms giant GTE, has said it would sue for damages if NextCom lost its attempt to launch a full judicial review of the selection process.
The winner will have the right to compete in a market set to generate revenues of $1.2 billion this year.
Bitter wrangling over the licence has been watched closely by overseas investors keen to see South African markets opened up to competition.
Mobile operator MTN, owned by M-Cell Limited, and rival operator Vodacom now dominate the country’s mobile market.
Matsepe-Casaburri said it was ”premature and presumptuous” of NextCom, which is backed by Hong Kong telecoms group Distacom, to assume that she would automatically back Satra’s choice of Cell-C.
NextCom has described the Satra recommendation as tainted and flawed by ”irregularities”. Cell-C has alleged that a director from NextCom offered it $100 million in return for dropping a court case against the choice. – REUTERS