{"id":284576,"date":"2018-11-16T08:09:35","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T06:09:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=284576"},"modified":"2018-11-16T08:09:35","modified_gmt":"2018-11-16T06:09:35","slug":"anc-plans-to-launch-its-own-mobile-network-to-help-win-the-2019-elections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/284576\/anc-plans-to-launch-its-own-mobile-network-to-help-win-the-2019-elections\/","title":{"rendered":"ANC plans to launch its own mobile network to help win the 2019 elections"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Mail & Guardian<\/strong><\/a> has reported that the ANC plans to launch a mobile network on the back of Cell C called \u201cANC 1912 Mobile\u201d.<\/p>\n

The report stated that the MVNO is part of a plan to help the ANC win the\u00a0national general elections in 2019 by attracting new voters.<\/p>\n

The mobile network would also be used to \u201cdisseminate ANC news, content and information\u201d \u2013 and \u201cearn the party more than R10 million a month\u201d, stated the Mail & Guardian.<\/p>\n

It is stated that the companies which would own the MVNO are\u00a0Digital Broadway and Trading and Impepho Emhlophe Risk Managers, and was part of a R13-million proposal to\u00a0ANC election head Fikile Mbalula.<\/p>\n

Meetings between the ANC and Cell C reportedly took place by May, and Cell C was selected as the service provider in June.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut allegations of greed, litigation threats, and claims of a conflict of interest threaten to derail the agreement,\u201d stated the report.<\/p>\n

Shareholding<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Mail & Guardian said documents it has seen show that the shareholding of the project was broken down into several chunks, with\u00a0Majota \u201cPhat Joe\u201d Kambule getting 51%.\u00a0Kambule owns\u00a0Digital Broadway and Trading.<\/p>\n

Impepho Emhlophe Risk Managers would receive 22%, and the Umkhonto weSizwe Military Veterans Association will get 5%.<\/p>\n

\u201cOther unknown entities 15%, and 7% for the \u2018Vatican\u2019,\u201d stated the report. This is reportedly\u00a0ANC headquarters Luthuli House.<\/p>\n

However, it is alleged that a manager in the ANC\u2019s election committee wants to bring his own company into the deal so it can benefit from 1912 Mobile.<\/p>\n

This manager then allegedly went to Cell C to\u00a0negotiate on behalf of the ANC without Impepho Emhlophe Risk Managers.<\/p>\n

Impepho Emhlophe Risk Managers, through its owner Joseph Nkadimeng, said they were now considering legal action if\u00a01912 Mobile is launched by the ANC.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unfortunate that both greed and arrogance superseded the humble intentions of Digital and Impepho activism to promote the ANC\u2019s election manifesto and campaign,\u201d said\u00a0Nkadimeng.<\/p>\n

Mbalula, however, denied that the project was in jeopardy and that there is \u201cnothing that is being stalled\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it moves ahead will depend on\u2026 time, because it\u2019s a huge project and we are not comfortable to talk about it,\u201d said\u00a0Mbalula.<\/p>\n

Cell C spokesperson Karin Fourie said the discussions were confidential and subject to NDAs.<\/p>\n

The report added that 1912 Mobile aimed to connect one million customers and \u201cgenerate R10 million in cash per month for the ANC\u201d.<\/p>\n

\n

Read: South Africa to build first \u2018affordable\u2019 smartphone<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Mail & Guardian has reported that the ANC plans to launch a mobile network on the back of Cell C called \u201cANC 1912 Mobile\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"featured_media":7370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-284576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mobile","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284576"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":284584,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284576\/revisions\/284584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}