After more than three-and-a-half years of regulatory wrangling, Vodacom South Africa was last week finally given the green light to acquire a co-controlling 30-34.95 stake in Maziv, the company that owns Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa, down from 30-40 previously per an agreement with the Competition Commission.
Maziv will now get billions of rand in new capital flowing into its coffers that will allow it to speed up the roll-out of fibre network infrastructure across South Africa, including into townships - a stated objective.
The appeal court on Thursday gave its consent to the deal after the Competition Commission changed tack, initially recommending that the deal be blocked by the Competition Tribunal, and then recommending recently its approval after the merging parties agreed to further changes aimed at lessening the negative impact on competition in the fibre market.