Communications regulator the Independent Communications Authority of SA (ICASA) swooped on global steel producer ArcelorMittal's Pretoria West offices at the end of last week, in a bid to clamp down on the alleged illegal use of radio spectrum.
The global steel giant, which employs more than 9 000 staff in SA at several manufacturing plants, now faces more raids at its local offices over the suspected illegal use of spectrum.
On Friday, ICASA said it had raided the steel company's office and confiscated handheld radio equipment, after ArcelorMittal failed to pay a R2 million penalty for illegally using frequency.
ICASA says it raided the office after obtaining a warrant from the Pretoria Magistrate's Court. The regulator seized five repeaters and six mobile handheld radios at ArcelorMittal's Pretoria West office.
The regulator says it will “continue to visit other offices of the company in other parts of the country for continued seizure”. ArcelorMittal was given until last Thursday to pay about R2 million in licence fees to use the frequency, which it failed to do, says ICASA.
Enforcement
ICASA spokesman Paseka Maleka says “people always believe ICASA is not doing anything, so we want to change that mentality. We are proactive.”
ICASA started investigating ArcelorMittal's alleged illegal use of frequency about three weeks ago.
On 24 November, when the regulator inspected the Pretoria West offices, the steel producer could not produce licences for radio equipment such as repeaters, simplexes and telemetry systems; and mobile handheld radios, which it was using.
ArcelorMittal still has to pay the R2 million licence fee to operate the two-way radios, says Maleka. “One of the issues is that they failed to produce a licence, so we're not sure if they do have one or not. We still need to do further investigations.”
Maleka says ICASA will decide how to tackle ArcelorMittal's other branches, having started investigating in Pretoria West. He explains ICASA CEO Themba Dlamini needs to provide a directive as to how to take the unpaid licence fee issue forward.
ArcelorMittal claims to be “the world's leading steel company”, with presence in more than 60 countries. It turned over $78 billion in the 2010 financial year and produced 90.6 million tons of crude steel, about 6% of world steel output.
The company, which is listed in New York, Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, Luxembourg and Spain, employs more than 9 100 staff in SA. It has manufacturing plants in Vanderbijlpark, Saldanha, Vereeninging and Newcastle.
ArcelorMittal could not immediately comment on the raid, but indicated it would do so either later today or tomorrow.
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