Pretoria – The Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) notes with concern that the listing of the Multichoice Group seems to be going ahead even though there is a complaint before the Complaints and Compliance Committee (CCC) against the licensee on this listing matter.
On 23 January 2019, Khulisa Social Group NPC (Khulisa) lodged a complaint with the CCC against Multichoice in respect of the listing. In its complaint, Khulisa stated that the upcoming listing of the Multichoice Group on the JSE will result in a contravention of Section 13(1) of the Electronic Communications Act 0f 2005 (ECA), as amended.
Section 13(1) of the ECA states that ‘an individual licence may not be let, sub-let, assigned, ceded or in any way transferred, and the control of the individual licence may not be assigned, ceded or in any way transferred to any other person without the prior written permission of the Authority.’
Multichoice appeared before the CCC on Monday, 18 February 2019 where the licensee argued that the matter was not urgent and that the listing had not taken place. The licensee further argued before the Committee that, in any case, there was no past contravention by the licensee and that the CCC had no jurisdiction over future events.
“ICASA is indeed concerned that the listing seems to be going ahead whilst the CCC is still considering representations that were made and yet to make its final recommendations on the matter to Council of the Authority,” says ICASA.
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