The Constitutional Court has dismissed the City Of Tshwane’s (CoT’s) application for leave to appeal in a dispute between Thobela Telecoms and CoT over the City’s allegations that the tender award process was unlawful owing to internal processes and procedures at the CoT not being correctly followed.
After the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) overturned, in September, a finding by the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria in July 2019 that set aside the awarding of a broadband contract to special purpose vehicle Thobela Telecoms, the CoT referred the matter to the Constitutional Court in December and sought leave to appeal the decision of the SCA.
“The judgement, handed down in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on July 16, 2019, related to the setting aside of the award of the Altron Nexus / CoT Municipal Broadband Network contract on the basis of primarily internal processes not having been followed by the CoT in the awarding of the tender,” Altron said in an update to shareholders.
The contract was awarded to Thobela Telecoms in June 2015, in which Altron Nexus is involved as the primary network designer and architect, supplier of broadband equipment and related services, as well as having a minority shareholding.
Altron appealed the matter in the SCA and the court ruled in favour of Altron.
“Given that the CoT had filed their leave to appeal outside of the rules of court, in an order dated May 19, 2021, the Constitutional Court refused the application for condonation brought by the CoT for the late filing of its leave to appeal application; additionally, the court dismissed the CoT’s application for leave to appeal with costs ordering that the application did not have any reasonable prospects of success,” Altron said in an update to shareholders.
“The board and management are pleased with the outcome of the Constitutional Court’s order and note that this risk and litigation has been mitigated and resolved accordingly,” the company concluded.