The legal issues affecting the yet to be licensed second national operator (SNO) continue to grow, with the communications minister apparently to blame for further delays in the process.
According to Daniel Pretorius, a partner in Bowman Gilfillan Attorneys - acting on behalf of 19% shareholder Nexus Connexion - the lawyers are still awaiting documentation from the Department of Communications that was due to be delivered to them by the end of June.
"While we have received a letter from the minister saying she will not award the SNO licence, or at least not one that has either Two Consortium or CommuniTel involved in it, until the judicial review has been completed, we are still awaiting certain documentation from the department before we can file the affidavits that need to be filed before a date for the review can be set."
The minister`s letter means that Nexus will now no longer seek an interdict to prevent the awarding of the licence, as it now has an assurance from the department that the SNO will not be licensed in its current form without Nexus being given two weeks` notice, and thus having time to reapply for an interdict to block any such move.
Nexus Connexion originally sought a judicial review into the process whereby the minister awarded both Two and CommuniTel 13% stakes in the SNO while warehousing the remaining 25%, despite the fact that neither was recommended by the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA).
"Because of the way the SNO has been structured, we could see two bidders who were considered unworthy by ICASA gaining control of the SNO, which we believe would be an unpalatable situation," says Pretorius.
"We have sent the department a list of the additional documents we need from them in order to prepare our affidavit, but because these affidavits need to be filed before a date for the judicial review can be set, I will be surprised if we see the review happen before the end of the year."
He says that while the minister obviously also wants the SNO sorted out, she appears to have taken not only the maximum time allocated to provide the documents required by Bowman Gilfillan, but in fact has gone over the time allocated.
"Once we have received all the necessary documents, we can elaborate on the basis of these when filing our affidavit," states Pretorius.
He says that although the delays are not good for the SNO as a whole, the judicial review is a necessity in order for the SNO to succeed.
"Obviously we would like it issued as soon as possible, but this has to be balanced with the need for an economically viable operator, rather than one which has two major shareholders who bring absolutely nothing to the party," he says.
"The delays are certainly unfortunate, but we would rather delay another six months and end up with a viable SNO than see the entire entity fail."
The official spokesman for the SNO, Transtel`s Karl Socikwa, was not available for comment, but industry analysts have claimed the judicial review is damaging to the entire local communications market, with the only beneficiary of such an action being Telkom.
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