Johannesburg - Due to a delay in the fulfilment of all the conditions precedent to its sale transaction, mobile carrier Vodacom said on Friday it now expects to list on the JSE on Monday May 18 2009.
Vodacom on Friday confirmed that all the conditions precedent to the sale transaction in terms of which fixed line operator Telkom will dispose of 15% of the issued ordinary share capital in Vodacom to Vodafone Holdings Limited have now been fulfilled.
"Vodacom Group's listing on the JSE Limited on Tuesday 5 May 2009 was conditional on all conditions precedent to the sale transaction being fulfilled by Tuesday 2 April 2009," the company explained.
But on Friday the Communication Workers Union served Telkom, Vodacom and Vodafone with notice of an urgent court interdict application in a bid to halt the merger transaction between Vodacom and Vodafone.
The CWU said its main bone of contention was the fact that the organisation was not properly consulted by Telkom in terms of both legislation and the recognition agreement regulating relations between its members and the company.
"We had no other option but to use the law to force all parties to properly consult CWU, as we have members in both Telkom and Vodacom and about 29 000 members in the information communication and technology sector in general."
The CWU also believed that the public interest had been "deliberately ignored and compromised".
It said the issue should have been considered through a process of public hearings by the Independent Communication Commission of SA (Icasa).
"These hearings were not held and the general public's interests were therefore disregarded," the union said.
"Telkom and all others involved in this transaction have shown gross undermining of our organisation and the public in general, in the way that this matter was handled," it added.
According to the CWU, Telkom's CEO and its board chairperson had deliberately failed to honour a meeting facilitated by the Department of Communications on April 14 where engagement between organised labour and Telkom was to have taken place.
"This conduct will perhaps be explained by Telkom through the courts of our country ... that's where will meet on the April 21 2009," the union said.
Telkom was not able to comment immediately.
- Sapa and I-Net Bridge