Vodacom South Africa said a court ruling against the Independent Communications Authority of SA will have "no material bearing" on its plans to buy Neotel. The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria ruled that a decision by Icasa to approve the transfer of control of licences from Neotel to Vodacom should be set aside in its entirety and with costs. However, Vodacom's executive head of media relations, Byron Kennedy, points out that the proposed modified transaction announced in December 2015 excluded Neotel's spectrum and licences, so the 26 February judgment has no bearing on the deal.
The ruling from the high court was related to applications from Telkom, MTN, Cell C and Internet Solutions that were launched last year before Vodacom announced the changes to the takeover. The parties applied separately but agreed all the applications should be heard together, ITWeb reported. Telkom's managing executive of group communication, Jacqui O'Sullivan said the company still welcomes the decision and "believes that it was taken in the best interests of sustainability in the industry". MTN SA chief corporate service officer Graham de Vries would only say the company had taken note of the judgment and "acknowledges the contents of the decision".
