The long running legal dispute around the awarding of the third cellular licence may, or may not, come to an end on Friday, but Cell C says its plans to have a competitor to MTN and Vodacom in place before Christmas are well on track.
The Pretoria High Court was in disarray on Friday, as judgement in the judicial review on the recommendation of Cell C as the third cellular operator was postponed while resolution was sought on an apparent deal struck between Cell C and Nextcom, the rival bidder which requested the review.
It would take an act of God, a firm judgement which denied us the licence, to prevent us from carrying on with our preparations.
Zwelakhe Mankazana, director and spokesman, Cell C
The deal, which would settle the case out of court, was apparently concluded between Nextcom CEO Bushy Kelebonye and Cell C without the involvement of all Nextcom directors. There is still confusion as to whether the deal has been officially ratified by Nextcom. No Nextcom directors could be reached for comment.
Judgement on the case is due this Friday, unless the Nextcom team can agree by then to settle the matter.
However, Cell C director and spokesman Zwelakhe Mankazana says confusion in the court has no bearing on the roll-out plan established by the consortium after it was provisionally awarded the licence.
"It would take an act of God, a firm judgement which denied us the licence, to prevent us from carrying on with our preparations," he says.
He would in no way comment on the deal with Nextcom, but repeated a long-held Cell C view that it would consider working with rival bidders as "the bulk of SA`s black telecoms expertise was housed in other bidders for the licence". He says Cell C has been referring interested people to the bidders for its tenders, to secure sub-contracted work there.
Mankazana says contractual paperwork on the award of its multimillion rand roll-out tender would be concluded "within days".
"Siemens has been identified as the main network contractor, while Accenture is to handle systems integration. An announcement is to be made on the concluded deals shortly.
"We are not being arrogant or defiant in the face of the legal process," Mankazana says. "We simply have a firm belief in our own credibility. Whatever may or may not be the outcomes of the legal process, these have to date not been considered sufficient reason for us to stop our preparations.
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