Johannesburg – Vodacom’s acquisition of a 40% stake in Maziv (Vumatel’s mum or dad) is again on the desk after a significant breakthrough within the case.
The Competition Commission introduced on Tuesday, 8 July 2025, that it has reached an settlement with Vodacom and Maziv – proprietor of Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) – that would enable the deal to proceed.
This comes regardless of earlier rulings by each the Commission and the Competition Tribunal blocking the merger over competitors considerations.
The revised circumstances “considerably treatment the competitors considerations” initially raised, the Commission mentioned.
The settlement follows negotiations to deal with flaws in earlier proposals that led to the deal’s preliminary rejection.
However, three main competitors considerations weren’t adequately addressed by the proposed circumstances on the time of concluding the Tribunal hearings.
These had been:
1. The horizontal discount in competitors between Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) and Fibre to the Home (FTTH).
The circumstances positioned to deal with this concern had been that Vodacom would provide FWA the place it rolled out 5G and that it might worth it “competitively”.
However, the commitments on the rollout of 5G websites and the rollout of FTTH had been inadequate to incentivise the events to encourage client entry at aggressive costs and guarantee third-party entry to FTTH.
The revised circumstances deal with these shortcomings by bettering the capex dedication by Maziv and increasing it to 5 years post-merger to make sure that Maziv stays incentivised to service third-party community operators.
The revised circumstances additionally promote competitors between FTTH and FWA by enhanced protection commitments coupled, importantly, with connection commitments.
The events might want to worth competitively if they’re to realize the connection commitments.
The merger events have additionally agreed to take care of lower-cost broadband packages out there to make sure that particularly lower-income customers have a spread of competitively priced packages to select from.
A rising, deconcentrated, and inclusive financial system.
2. The horizontal overlap in FTTH infrastructure and potential worth will increase post-merger.
The earlier circumstances had been insufficient insofar as they included a ‘weak’ divestiture situation that didn’t adequately incentivise the merging events to divest the overlapping infrastructure.
The revised circumstances put in place an ordinary divestiture association whereby the failure to promote the belongings inside a specific interval leads to a trustee divestiture course of to make sure the belongings are divested and pre-merger competitors is restored.
The situation follows the usual formulation utilized in different merger transactions and requires {that a} clear and aggressive course of be adopted to determine a proposed purchaser.
3. The vertical foreclosures considerations.
Although there have been pretty complete circumstances in place to deal with foreclosures, there have been notable challenges with monitoring and implementing the circumstances with the ensuing concern that motion wouldn’t be sufficiently well timed to stop foreclosures from occurring and harming competitors.
The revised circumstances introduce some structural modifications to Maziv’s governance construction that restrict the merged entity’s incentives to foreclose opponents.
The circumstances now additionally incorporate an enhanced fast-track interim aid course of that may deal with potential foreclosures considerations whereas the lengthier formal course of to analyze any alleged foreclosures is underway.
This ensures that any try and get a primary mover benefit that may have an everlasting impact out there could be prevented by fast-track interim aid.
Finally, there are important enhancements to the general public curiosity commitments which enhance the substantiality of those commitments.
These embody:
- extra capex spend to roll out new Fibre-to-the-Business (FTTB), FTTH, and Fibre-to-the-Site (FTTS) infrastructure,
- Free entry to 1Gigabit per second fibre traces for public libraries and clinics handed by FTTH infrastructure,
- An enhance within the variety of police stations that Vodacom will present with FWA merchandise,
- a further dedication to enterprise improvement and a rise within the worker share possession plan beforehand agreed
“Access to dependable, high-speed web is the cornerstone of a dynamic financial system and a democratic society,” Commissioner Doris Tshepe mentioned.
The Commission is assured that the revised circumstances agreed with the merger events will be sure that South Africa will profit from the continued aggressive costs and product selections on this vital sector.”
The matter will now proceed to the Competition Appeal Court on an unopposed foundation, and the Commission will inform the Court how the improved circumstances deal with the considerations it beforehand raised with the proposed transaction.
*This article first appeared in our sister publication techfinancials.co.za
