The
Independent Communications Authority of SA (Icasa) is "still applying
its mind" to the implications of Telkom selling its media unit to a
Chinese company, an officia said, according to a report on the Business Day website.
"We received a letter yesterday
morning in which Telkom was informing us of the decision. We are going
through the content of that letter and applying our minds," said Icasa
spokesman Sekgoela Sekgoela. He said Icasa needed to "engage" with
Telkom on the sale to Shenzhen Media, a Chinese media company which
owns four Chinese radio stations.
Asked whether the sale meant that
Shenzhen would automatically own the pay-TV broadcasting licence Icasa
granted to Telkom Media, Sekgoela replied: "I do not want to pre-empt
Icasa’s response. We need to understand the issues at play. "We need to
look at the implications. There are issues of foreign ownership and
many other issues at hand."
Sekgoela said he did not know
when Icasa would be able to comment on the transaction. Icasa awarded
four licences for new pay-TV channels in September 2007 and Telkom
Media was widely perceived to be the only one with enough resources to
take on the MultiChoice monopoly. But since then, Telkom Media, which
kept on postponing its launch date –initially said to be June 2008 —
had done nothing visible to the public.
Click here to read the full report, posted on Business Day's website.
