Vodacom South Africa is still awaiting approval from communications regulator Icasa for its acquisition of a 30% co-controlling stake in fibre operator Maziv.

Icasa’s approval had been expected quickly after the deal finally won the approval of the Competition Commission and the competition appeal court. But the latest developments are against delaying consummation for the transaction, which was first announced more than three-and-a-half years ago.

The deal was initially opposed by the Competition Commission on competition grounds and was later blocked by the Competition Tribunal. However, it was eventually allowed to proceed by the competition appeal court after Vodacom and the commission agreed on new terms designed to lessen the potentially negative impacts on competition in South Africa’s fibre industry.

“The discussions are ongoing in terms of the licensing conditions with Icasa, and we hope to resolve this soon, hopefully in the next week or two, as conditional approval was already given by Icasa,” said Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub in a call with journalists on Monday.

Asked for comment on the delay, Icasa spokeswoman Ramasela Matlou told TechCentral that the transfer of ownership from Dark Fibre Africa to Maziv – the first leg of the transaction – has been approved.

However, the transfer of control involving Vodacom’s minority shareholding in Maziv – the second leg – was approved subject to “special licence conditions”. She didn’t say what these were.

Operational muscle

“Icasa is at an advanced stage of negotiations to finalise these conditions with Maziv,” she added.

Maziv is majority owned by Remgro-controlled Community Investment Ventures Holdings (CIVH), which houses Vumatel, South Africa’s largest last-mile fibre network, and DFA, the country’s leading wholesale dark fibre provider.