Dark Fibre Africa has won a legal battle at the supreme court of appeal, allowing it to continue the construction of a fibre-optic broadband network in the Msunduzi (Pietermaritzburg) municipality.
The municipality filed a case against Dark Fibre Africa in February after the company began constructing a fibre network in the KwaZulu-Natal capital.
“In July 2012, Dark Fibre Africa started applying for wayleaves from the Msunduzi municipality. In the following 16 months, we made numerous attempts to engage with the municipality to obtain the aforementioned wayleaves, but it refused to grant the them,” Dark Fibre Africa spokesman Tshego Distshego tells TechCentral.
“In this phase of network build we were building links for government entities and thus we were surprised when we were stopped by a local government entity.”
A year later, the municipality was embroiled in a R1,2bn tender scandal after Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business president Paris Dlamini brokered a deal that awarded Johannesburg-based BWired the contract to install and operate a fibre network worth around R100m/year for 12 years.
According to a report published in the Sunday Tribune in August last year, the deal never went out to tender because it was deemed part of a wider transport contract.
In September last year, Dark Fibre Africa advised the municipality that if approval of the wayleaves was not granted by the end of that month, it would commence with the construction. Distshego says Dark Fibre Africa began work on 12 November.
Then, in February this year, the municipality instituted urgent legal proceedings seeking an interdict to halt the construction work.
The case was heard in the high court in Pietermaritzburg, but it was dismissed. The municipality appealed against the judgment, which it has now lost.
Distshego says Dark Fibre Africa will continue to engage with the municipality on the practical matters related to building the network.
“This ruling is not only a win for Dark Fibre Africa, but for the industry as a whole and we hope that it will enable more beneficial engagement between telecommunications operators and the various municipalities across South Africa in future.” — © 2014 NewsCentral Media
