Court intervenes in Vodacom, LCA clash

COURT INTERVENES IN VODACOM, LCA MATTER

Maseru, Oct. 09 — The High Court has issued an interim order directing that a decision by the Lesotho Communications Authority (LCA) to revoke a unified license of Vodacom Lesotho be stayed pending finalization of an application between the two parties recently filed before the Court.

The order was made after Vodacom Lesotho approached the court seeking for its intervention after LCA imposed a M134 million fine on them as well as revoked their license. In the application, Vodacom Lesotho is among others asking that the decision by LCA to revoke the license be reviewed and set aside.

The court has also ordered that LCA, as one of the respondents in the matter, submits to the Registrar of the High Court and within 14 days a record of proceedings pursuant to which the respondent arrived at the decision on February 11, 2020 that the applicant contravened condition 15 of its unified license. The court has also ordered for submission of a record in which a decision imposing a penalty of a M134 million fine was made.

A rule nisi has also been issued by the court ordering the respondents to show cause, if any, on October 23 2020 why, among others, their decisions cannot be reviewed and set aside.

Vodacom Lesotho had yesterday released a press statement stating that they would lodge an urgent interdict and also assuring their customers that it was business as usual.

‘Vodacom Lesotho confirms it will lodge an urgent application in the High Court of Lesotho to have reviewed and set aside the decision of the Lesotho Communications Authority (LCA), imposing a fine for a staggering sum of M134 million for alleged contraventions of section 97 of the Companies Act 2011 and certain conditions of its unified license. In the same application, Vodacom will be challenging the lawfulness of the LCA’s decision, set out in a notice dated 8 October 2020, revoking its unified license’, says the statement.
LENA