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Zimbabwe David fells Mugabe Goliat... Woolworths geared to go shopping Down Un... Drumbeat of change pulses across African... Citibank fund has muscle to make deal... |
Zimbabwe David fells Mugabe Goliath
CELLPHONE OPERATOR
ON THE immaculate desk in Strive Masiyiwa's Harare office there was a cellphone, but it never rang. For four long years he fought a ding-dong battle against the Zimbabwe government to have his cellular phone network licensed. The figurative call finally came this week when the government accepted a High Court ruling giving Masiyiwa's company, Econet, the right to become Zimbabwe's second licensed cellular operator. Masiyiwa is now negotiating with MTN, the SA cellular phone group, which is understood to be on the brink of buying a 40% stake in Econet. MTN's Jacques Sellschop said talks with Masiyiwa were at an advanced stage. For more than four years, the 33-year-old Masiyiwa battled for the right to run his business. Four times the Supreme Court ruled in his favour. But the government refused to budge. Then he approached the Zimbabwe High Court. Masiyiwa's legal briefs read like a John le Carré novel. There were police raids and threats, bribes and nepotism. At one stage, then Minister of Telecommunications, Joyce Mujuru, threatened to confiscate Econet's base-station equipment. "It was an absolute nightmare," recalls Masiyiwa. His ordeal began in 1993 when the energetic engineer challenged the law that gave the government's Posts & Telecommunications Corporation a monopoly. In 1994 the Constitutional Court ruled that the PTC's "delinquent" phone service was "an abridgement of the right to freedom of expression". The court threw out the parastatal's monopoly. Masiyiwa moved quickly to set up Econet's infrastructure. But he was stopped in his tracks by a presidential decree that threatened anyone operating a cellular licence with two years in prison. Almost a year later the government was still remiss in setting up a procedure for granting licences, and the Supreme Court accused the government of stalling. The judges ordered the government to invite public bids and grant a licence by the end of February last year, or the court would grant Econet a licence. The panel set up to evaluate the tender placed Econet last of the five bidding companies. The licence was granted to Telecell Zimbabwe, a company whose shareholders include a nephew of President Robert Mugabe.
Masiyiwa says since the court decision allowing him to become a licensed operator, he has been threatened with arrest and confiscation of his equipment. He says Mujuru ordered Ericsson to reclaim its cellular equipment from Econet and resell it to Telecell. Masiyiwa claims the Swedish ambassador was told that if Ericsson did not comply, relations with Sweden would suffer. Ericsson's representative in Zimbabwe refused to comment "for obvious reasons". The Swedish ambassador would not comment either.
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