After more than three-and-a-half years of regulatory wrangling, Vodacom South Africa has finally been given the green light to acquire a co-controlling 30-34.95% stake in fibre operator Maziv, TechCentral has learnt. Maziv, which owns Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa, will now get billions of rand in new capital flowing into its coffers that will allow…
Vodacom announced on Thursday that it has made South Africa’s first “native” voice call on a 5G test network. Known as Voice over New Radio (VoNR), this technology allows voice calls to be carried directly over the 5G network, which has previously been used only for data. Vodacom says it plans to introduce VoNR to…
Vodacom on Thursday said it has placed South Africa’s first “native” voice call on 5G – known as Voice over New Radio, or VoNR – using a test network. The technology could soon be introduced in Vodacom’s live network for consumers to use, the telecommunications operator said in a statement, without providing a timeline. It’s…
Vodacom invests R620 million to improve connectivity and digital inclusion in Mpumalanga. Mobile telephony group Vodacom will spend R620 million on improving connectivity and digital inclusion in Mpumalanga this financial year. This is in addition to the over R400 million the telco invested in the region in the previous financial year (2024-2025), it says. According…
Please Call Me inventor Nkosana Makate and Vodacom CEO Shameel Joosub. “Please Call Me” inventor Nkosana Makate will have to wait even longer for compensation from Vodacom. The Constitutional Court overturned a 2024 Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) ruling that ordered the company to pay him between 5% and 7.5% of revenue generated from the…
Nkosana Makate in the constitutional court last year The constitutional court has granted Vodacom leave to appeal in its ongoing legal battle with “please call me” inventor Nkosana Makate, meaning the case, which has been dragging on for the past 17 years, is yet to reach a conclusion. In a scathing judgment handed down by…
Maziv is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Community Investment Ventures Holdings. (Photograph by Lesley Moyo) Vodacom and Maziv have today been interrogated by the Competition Appeal Court over why they had bothered to sweeten a potential merger if they were simultaneously appealing a 2024 decision by the Competition Tribunal prohibiting their multibillion-rand deal. Advocate Jerome Wilson,…
Vodacom’s proposed acquisition of a 30% stake in fibre network operator Maziv could value the target company at up to R36-billion after agreeing revised terms on Friday. That would make Maziv, which owns fibre companies Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa, worth more than R7-billion more than Telkom, which closed on Friday on the JSE with…
As part of Mandela Month, Vodacom will help pre-selected prepaid customers who use 2G handsets to upgrade to a 4G Kicka 6 Smartphone for R67. Image credit: Keira Burton on Pexels This offer will be available at selected stores, starting in KwaZulu-Natal and then expanding to Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces. “Millions of South Africans still…
Vodacom’s acquisition of a co-controlling stake of up to 40% in Vumatel parent Maziv is suddenly back on the table following a dramatic development in the case. The Competition Commission said on Tuesday that it has reached an agreement with both Vodacom and Maziv, which also owns Dark Fibre Africa, that could see the deal…
