A legal battle between Telkom and ZTE Mzansi over a tender is set to delay the rollout of Telkom’s new high speed broadband network.
ZTE Mzansi took Telkom to court after being disqualified from a bidding process related to the project.
Last week the High Court granted an interim interdict pending the finalisation of the dispute resolution process between Telkom and ZTE Mzansi.
Pending the outcome of the dispute resolution process, Telkom is interdicted from implementing the tender and concluding any service level agreement with the bidders.
Telkom is confident that they will win the legal battle, but is concerned at the recent trend of challenging the awarding of key tenders in the courts.
“This often has serious consequences for customers by stalling rollout plans unnecessarily,” Telkom said.
Telkom Group CEO Nombulelo Moholi today (2 April 2012) said: “It is Telkom’s Procurement Policy and Procedures that are on trial here. I am confident that they will not be found wanting.”
“Telkom is often considered to be fair game by losing bidders who may feel entitled to be awarded business by the Company. We are often taken to court on review without any foundation whatsoever.”
“Whilst one has rights to challenge administrative actions, unfortunately, the loser in this case is the end-user, our customers who have to wait for months on end, and sometimes even years, to receive quality service.”
“Meanwhile, Telkom will undoubtedly be accused of poor or late execution of network solutions to the advantage of our competitors,” said Ms Moholi.
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