EE-News
News and announcements from EE Publishers  Issue 312, August 2015
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Industry news
Update on the SAPO saga and efforts by publishers to end the monopoly
 
by Chris Yelland, managing director at EE Publishers, and spokesman for the complainants
 
Click here for the full article
 
Some eight months after a formal complaint was lodged on 11 December 2014 by a concerned group of specialist magazine publishers with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) against the South African Post Office (SAPO), the matter is dragging on and on, without an end in sight.
 
The complainants are asking ICASA to review SAPO's alleged failure to meet its license conditions over an extended period, taking into account the significant financial and other damage to the magazine publishing industry caused thereby, and to sanction SAPO accordingly.
 
After a long process of apparent stone-walling by SAPO, as detailed in an earlier media release on 1 July 2015, the matter was finally heard by the ICASA Complaints and Compliance Committee (CCC) on 2 July 2015.

At the hearing, the SAPO advocate and legal team appeared demoralised, disorientated and directionless, and appeared not to have been properly briefed by SAPO. They failed to deal with the merits of the complaints levelled against SAPO, and instead raised various procedural and technical objections.

Despite the fact that SAPOs alleged non-performances were in progress at the date of submission of the complaint (11 December 2014), and indeed are said to be ongoing to this day, the SAPO legal team argued that the non-performances referred to by the complainants had prescribed.
 
The SAPO legal team further argued that strike actions by the SAPO workforce had made due performance of its license conditions impossible. This was rejected by the legal team of the complainants, who presented case law which showed that the argument of impossibility (or force majeure) does not and cannot apply when the cause of the claimed impossibility is self-inflicted.
 
In this regard, the legal team of the complainants pointed out the ongoing management problems at SAPO as indicated by: the removal of the entire previous board of directors; the appointment by President Zuma of an investigation into alleged corruption at SAPO; the severe financial problems of SAPO; the placing of SAPO under administration by the National Treasury; reports of ongoing problems in paying salaries timeously to SAPO staff and workers; reports on the refusal by SAA to carry SAPO mail due to non-payment; and ongoing reports of late payments and non-payment of suppliers and rent on leased premises by SAPO.
 
The legal team of the complainants also presented a research report, dated February 2015, by Prof. David Dickinson, Professor of Sociology at the University of the Witwatersrand, entitled: "Fighting their own battles: The Mabarete and the End of Labour Broking in the South African Post Office", on the background and causes of the strike actions.
 
This research study clearly shows that SAPO's labour problems and strikes resulted directly from management neglect over an extended period, of what is referred to as the "dirty secret" of large-scale use of temporary labour on a permanent basis (through labour brokers) in breach of labour relations legislation, which resulted in grossly unfair and discriminatory labour practices by SAPO. The CCC indicated that the research study may not be admissible evidence at the hearing, but confirmed that it would have regard to all the facts and other evidence presented by the complainants.
 
The complainants say that the delays, tone and contents of SAPO's arguments are in keeping with the utter disregard that SAPO has shown for the mechanism by which SAPO is meant to be held to account by its regulator, ICASA.
 
The complainants further say this is not an approach that should ever be taken by a state-owned entity such as SAPO. At the hearing by the CCC, the legal representatives of the complainants referred to the relevant case law in this regard (more)


  

Invitation

SANEA/SANEDI Energy Awards 2015 banquet

  

Your company is cordially invited to book a table and attend the SANEA/SANEDI Energy Awards 2015 banquet to celebrate those who are shaping the energy landscape.

 

DATE: 17 September 2015

TIME: 18h45 for 19h15

VENUE: The Maslow Hotel, Sandton, Johannesburg

 

To secure your table(s), please complete the manual or online booking form without delay at the links below:

 

Corporate tables online booking form 

Corporate tables Word doc booking form 

Corporate table packages and benefits 

 

In this issue...
Update on the SAPO saga and efforts by publishers to end the monopoly
SANEA/SANEDI Energy Awards 2015 banquet
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