FOR THE RECORD
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe has stated that he was not party to any meeting at which attempts were made to cancel or postpone the Vodacom deal nor did he approve the deal without due and proper consideration of all relevant issues.
Sources have confirmed president Jacob Zuma tried to postpone the R22.5 billion Vodacom deal until he could understand why it had to go ahead in the first place.
Last week, Financial Mail editor Barney Mthombothi claimed in an editorial that Zuma directly tried to have the deal stopped and summoned Telkom CEO Reuben September to a meeting shortly after taking office.
Vodacom's listing happened after telecommunications regulator ICASA, at the prompting of the ANC-aligned Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu), attempted an 11th hour court action to stop the deal.
Parliament's Communications Committee put ICASA through the wringer three weeks after that, as the court's findings awarded costs against the regulator. Subsequently, there has been a dispute as to who authorised the expenditure and ICASA still has to come back to the legislature with a final answer on the issue. The legal bill, which is expected to run into several millions of rands, has not yet been processed by the authority.
Former ICASA councillor Mthobeli Zokwe admitted to Parliament's Communications Committee that Cosatu had lobbied him to help stop the listing.
Interim president Kgalema Motlanthe gave Cabinet's approval as one of his first acts of office, following the ANC's recall of former president Thabo Mbeki, in September last year.
“A key issue for the president [Zuma] was that he did not understand why the deal had to go ahead as it would be handing control of a key company to foreigners. He was also concerned about possible job losses,” says a source, who was closely involved with the discussions.
The source - whose identity is known to ITWeb - says information that had been supplied to Zuma was flawed, and his meetings with the Telkom and Vodacom CEOs were supposed to correct that for a final decision to be made.
“However, he was annoyed that Motlanthe had signed approval for something that he did not understand, or its implications, and so wanted the deal to be at least postponed until a more complete assessment could be made,” the source says.
Another source, who is a government official, says: “There was a feeling by the new administration that Motlanthe was duped into approving the deal. Not just the fears that it would cost the country jobs or anything like that, but because some of the people involved are ardent supporters of Cope [Congress of the People].”
“There was a real fear about this and, of course, there was the feeling of settling some old scores. However, the money had been brought into the country and, when the court case happened, there was a very visible effect on the currency exchange rates,” another source says.
The political and regulatory fallout is expected to continue, with ICASA still struggling to regain some semblance of credibility after it was found its councillors were directly lobbied by Cosatu after having first said the deal did not need its approval.
ITWeb has still to receive responses to its queries from the presidency and ICASA.
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