South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (SATRA) chairman Nape Maepa has issued a statement explaining his decision to again become a part of the process to select the winning bidder for the third cellular licence.
The full text of the statement is available here.
Despite a statement on Monday by communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri to the effect that Maepa's recusal was permanent, he says he is forced to re-join the panel.
Maepa withdrew from the process of selecting a winning bidder in February when questions arose about prior business dealings that may have caused a conflict of interest. Maepa was also accused of mismanagement and nepotism prior to his withdrawal; allegations of which he was later cleared by the Department of Communications.
Last week, Maepa informed the SATRA council that he would be re-joining the adjudication. Matsepe-Casaburri did not agree.
"The Minister finds this demand (to re-join the council) is nothing but a move to scuttle the process further as legally it raises enormous problems," a statement issued on Matsepe-Casaburri's behalf by the department said.
Maepa today responded, saying there were legal reasons for his decision.
"Only the Remaining Council [a SATRA council] can veto my re-entry into the process," he says in his statement, basing his argument on the provisions of the Telecommunications Act.
The statement also reads: "It is not a good idea to drag the president into issues and the exercise of powers that, for him, do not derive from the law."
Maepa also says that when he withdrew from the adjudication because of external pressure, he reminded the Remaining Council to deliberate on the matter of his conflict of interest and inform him of the ruling. But no decision has been forthcoming. "My re-entry memorandum to the Remaining Council should therefore elicit the formal result of their deliberations addressed to me," he says.
This is not the first public disagreement between Maepa and Matsepe-Casaburri. SATRA and the Department of Communications earlier this month fought a war of media statements after the interconnect and facility-leasing guidelines by SATRA were withdrawn.
Maepa has not been nominated to the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa, the body that will be formed through the amalgamation of SATRA and the Independent Broadcasting Association.
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