Cell C was ordered on Thursday to pay the legal fees of a client who erected a banner criticising its service.<\/p>\n
“The legal costs are more than the cost of the banner,” said Raymond Druker, representing disgruntled Cell C client, George Prokas.<\/p>\n
The banner reportedly cost Prokas about R61,000.<\/p>\n
Druker was speaking to reporters after the High Court in Johannesburg dismissed Cell C’s urgent application to have the banner removed.<\/p>\n
The banner, which is prominently displayed on a wall outside the WorldWear Mall on Beyers Naude Drive originally read: “The most useless service provider in SA — Cell C Sandton City.”<\/p>\n
It gave the name of the franchise manager and his phone number, and claimed he had said his “unnamed executive head refuses to assist the customer”.<\/p>\n
The franchise manager submitted that the statement was defamatory.<\/p>\n
However, Judge Sharise Weiner found that in Prokas’s view, what he put up was true.<\/p>\n
She said criticism was protected as long as it held fair comment.<\/p>\n
Weiner dismissed Cell C’s urgent application. “The application is not urgent,” she said, adding that the damage had already been done.<\/p>\n
She claimed that Prokas had alerted the network provider to his intention to erect the banner before it went up. Cell C could have brought the matter to court then.<\/p>\n
The dispute arose when Prokas took a phone for his son with Cell C in 2013.<\/p>\n
However, the phone’s number belonged to someone else, who ran up a bill of R5000 by the time Prokas ended the stop-order for the phone in October last year.<\/p>\n
Prokas found out only when he was told he was listed as a bad debtor because of the unpaid R5000 when he tried to buy a car earlier in 2014.<\/p>\n
He sought to have the bill waived by Cell C and to be removed from the list of bad debtors by the end of October this year.<\/p>\n
When the situation had not changed by then, Prokas threatened, in e-mail correspondence with Cell C, to put up the banner unless his complaints were dealt with. He did so when his complaints were allegedly not dealt with.<\/p>\n
The banner, put up on November 6, was altered at the weekend to read: “Cell C the most useful cellular provider. It was not known who changed it.<\/p>\n
Druker said his client would probably keep the banner up, but remove the franchise manager’s details.<\/p>\n
He said Cell C would probably let the matter go, adding that “he would fall on his back” if the network provider tried to take the matter to another court.<\/p>\n
He said the ruling sent a message to other service providers to ensure that they satisfied their clients.<\/p>\n
Prokas did not attend for the proceedings but said, through his lawyer, that he was satisfied with the outcome.<\/p>\n
“He’s very satisfied and happy,” said Druker.<\/p>\n
“He says it shows that the courts are here to protect the people.”<\/p>\n
Prokas said it was sad that people who could not afford legal services had to put up with bad service.<\/p>\n
Judge rules on anti-Cell C banner<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Anti-Cell C banner creator \u201cthe hell in\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Cell C on why it went to court over billboard<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n