The Freedom Front Plus won’t submit complaints against MTN to parliament any longer after holding a meeting with the company on Thursday.
This is according to FF Plus parliamentary spokesman on communications Anton Alberts.
In late November, the party invited people who have unresolved billing and administrative problems with the cellphone company to come forward so that they can ask parliament and the National Consumer Commission for help.
The call came after FF Plus said they were approached by Radio Sonder Grense with complaints about MTN that ranged from excessive data charges to unexplained amounts billed on dormant accounts.
Alberts is also on parliament’s portfolio committee on trade & industry, which oversees the National Consumer Commission. He initially planned to address the committee with the MTN complaints in early 2016.
But following a meeting with MTN on Thursday, Alberts said the mobile company had committed to resolving the complaints by setting up a dedicated call line and providing access to an executive contact point to help resolve the issues.
“I won’t be submitting the MTN complaints to parliament next year because of the way MTN reacted,” Alberts said by phone.
“Because of the way they’ve reacted now, we’re giving them an opportunity to resolve the consumer complaints, but obviously we have now seen ourselves that this is a problem that affects people across the board.
“MTN was very proactive in dealing with the complaints,” Alberts added.
Alberts explained that he would still address the issue of cellphone complaints in parliament next year but that he would look at the “industry as a whole and not to focus only on MTN”.
“Obviously if things don’t work out in the industry as a whole, we will pursue it further and see whether there might be an investigation from parliament’s side,” he said.
MTN said in a statement on Friday that it is open to dealing with complaints received from the FF Plus.
“During the meeting, it quickly transpired that both MTN and the Freedom Front Plus have a common goal of improving customer experience and ensuring that mobile subscribers have a pleasant and seamless experience when they interact with the operators, including MTN,” said Eddie Moyce, MTN’s chief customer experience officer.
Meanwhile, MTN’s move to meet with the political party comes after it has had a challenging year.
A strike by Communication Workers Union members, which ended in July, caused disruptions to the company’s call centre and handset supplies in South Africa.
In addition, MTN is also facing a US$3,9bn fine in its biggest market, Nigeria, for failing to disconnect 5,2m unregistered Sim cards in a timely manner. MTN and the Nigerian Communications Commission are still in talks regarding the fine, which has a deadline for payment of 31 December 2015. — Fin24
