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Relief
for Zim mobile phone company
Thulani
Munda, ZimOnline
August 16, 2007
http://www.zimonline.co.za/Article.aspx?ArticleId=1858
HARARE - A Zimbabwe
High Court judge on Wednesday reversed a government order issued
last week to cancel an operating licence for a private mobile phone
company, Telecel Zimbabwe.
Last week, the Postal
and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ)
said it was canceling Telecel's licence after it accused the
mobile firm of failing to rectify its shareholding structure.
Under Zimbabwe's
investment laws, foreign ownership should be limited to no more
than 49 percent.
Telecel was said to be
60 percent owned by Telecel International while Empowerment Corporation,
a consortium of indigenous Zimbabwean businessmen owns the remaining
60 percent.
In a judgment delivered
in his chambers yesterday, High Court Judge Joseph Musakwa gave
Telecel Zimbabwe some relief after he suspended the cancellation
of the firm's operating licence.
In his order, Musakwa
said: "It is hereby ordered that the determination of the
appeal by the 2nd respondent (Transport and Communications Minister
Chris Mushohwe) canceling the licence and directing the applicant
to switch off its telecommunications issued by the 1st respondent
(POTRAZ) be and is hereby suspended."
Telecel was licensed
in 1998 at a time when President Robert Mugabe's government
pushed strongly to economically empower the indigenous black majority.
But the mobile phone
company has been dogged by infighting with Mugabe's nephew,
Leo, insisting that he be given a stake in Empowerment Corporation.
The other members in the grouping have however resisted the plans.
Economic commentators
say the cancellation of Telecel's licence was an attempt to
punish fugitive Zimbabwean businessman James Makamba who skipped
the country in 2005 after he was accused of externalising huge sums
of foreign currency.
Makamba holds a 23 percent
stake in Telecel through his company Kestrel Corporation. - ZimOnline
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