The City of Cape Town has dismissed Telkom's objections to the awarding of the R32 million Smart Cape wireless tender to MTN Network Solutions and Cornastone Enterprise Systems.
Les Barchard, statutory compliance officer to City of Cape Town manager Achmat Ebrahim, says the decision was made yesterday, four months after Telkom first lodged its appeal and after the tender had been awarded.
A lawyer, who asked not to be named as he is not involved in the process, says the finding is important as it is the first time the Electronic Communications (EC) Act has been used to break Telkom's monopoly that it enjoyed under the old Telecommunications Act.
Barchard says the City of Cape Town's own IT department and the City Managers Office each took independent legal counsel and these formed the basis of the final finding.
According to the findings, Telkom objected to the initial award because it was not short-listed after the request for information (RFI), and subsequently did not make it onto the shortlist of six tenderers who were asked to respond to the request for proposals (RFP).
Telkom was placed number 10 on the list of 20 respondents to the RFI, and the telecommunications utility complained it was not informed why it had not been included in the RFP stage.
The findings also state Telkom did not make further representations to the city's Appeal Authority, as it claimed the appeal had already been decided.
No leeway
Cape Town CIO Nirvesh Sooful stated previously the city pays Telkom an annual bill of R100 million, most of which is spent on getting connectivity to clinics, libraries and other social obligations, for which no leeway is given.
The legal opinion contained in the findings say that, while the licence conditions - as stipulated under the old Telecommunications Act - remain in force, the new EC Act expressly forbids the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) to grant or include in any converted licence "any monopoly or exclusionary rights in any network or service contemplated by this Act".
The city's own private telecommunications network licence and public switched telecommunications licence are due to be converted by ICASA into electronic communications network service and electronic communications service licences.
Lufuno Nevhutalu, CEO of Cornastone Technology Holdings, says the consortium, along with MTN Network Solutions, is ready to implement the project as soon as the City of Cape Town gives the go ahead.
"We have been ready from the beginning and the appeal by Telkom has been the thing that has been holding us back," he says.
Neither Telkom nor MTN Netowrk Solutions were available for comment.
Barchard says as far as the city is concerned, the matter is now closed and Telkom's only other option is to take the issue to court.
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