Pretoria - Cosatu has urged a consumer boycott of Vodacom following a court ruling in the firm's favour.

Cosatu general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said he was angry following the high-court judge John Murphy's decision. The judge rejected an application by the trade union federation and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) to stop cellular giant Vodacom from listing on the JSE on Monday.

Vavi said the boycott will go ahead. The South African Communist Party said it will support the boycott of Vodacom.

Cosatu and Icasa applied for an urgent interdict earlier this weekend to stop the listing.

Vodacom and a legal team representing Vodafone, Telkom and the South African government challenged the application in the Pretoria High Court on Sunday.

The application to block Vodacom's listing followed Icasa rescinding on its earlier decision not to intervene in the deal that sees Telkom selling 15% of its shareholding in Vodacom to UK firm Vodafone and unbundling the remaining 35% to shareholders.

The deal is worth R22.5bn, which Vodafone says has already been paid into South Africa.

Vodacom warned that a reversal of the deal would negatively impact on the South African economy and its currency. The rand dropped 3% against the dollar on Friday as investors reacted to the Icasa announcement.

Earlier, government lawyer SA Celliers said in court that the Zuma administration stood by what had been agreed with Vodafone, and added that Cosatu's attempt to scupper the deal was going nowhere.

"The prima facie case is not there to stop the listing," Celliers told the court. "There isn't a case to start with."

"The listing has been planned for ages and the parties involved have gone through lengthy processes in preparing for it. Many commitments have been made. So I'm glad that the listing will go ahead," said Kaplin Equity Analysts' Irnest Kaplin in response.

"On the other hand, Icasa looks very unprofessional in all of this, which is worrying. We can't be sure of its independence. If you're a foreign investor looking at this it looks terrible," he adds.

Vodacom said it a statement it welcomed the judgement.

"We look forward to listing tomorrow"

Cosatu and Icasa have been ordered to cover the legal costs.

- Fin24.com