Vodacom–Maziv Merger Wins Court Approval
After years of back and forth, the South African government has finally agreed, but with strings attached.
After what feels like a millennium of legal ping-pong, Vodacom South Africa and Maziv have finally been given the green light to merge—well, at least as far as regulators are concerned.
The approval ends more than three-and-a-half years of back-and-forth between the two companies and South Africa’s competition authorities, a saga that has included tribunal hearings, appeals, and even a change of heart from the Competition Commission.
For those not too familiar, Maziv owns Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) and Vumatel—the latter being South Africa’s largest fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) provider, with roughly 32–36% market share in both homes passed and connected, far ahead of Vodacom’s modest 2%. DFA dominates fiber-to-the-tower and fiber-to-the-business services.
For Vodacom, which already controls about 44% of the mobile broadband market, acquiring a 30–34.95% stake in Maziv offers a fast track into fixed broadband and the ability to bundle home internet with mobile services, something approximately 44% of the mobile broadband market, acquiring a 30–34.95% stake in Maziv offers a fast track into fixed broadband and the ability to bundle home internet with mobile services, a strategy also being pursued by MTN and Telkom. Maziv, in turn, gains billions in fresh capital to accelerate fiber rollout, especially in underserved townships.
That scale, however, is precisely what concerned regulators. South Africa's Competition Tribunal initially blocked the deal because it feared that combining Vodacom’s mobile dominance with Maziv’s fiber reach would squeeze out smaller ISPs, leading to higher prices and fewer choices, especially in the fiber-to-the-home market.
Louis Eriakha
So, the Competition Tribunal, a separate body with the power to approve or prohibit mergers, listened to the Commission's concerns and decided to block the deal. That's when the two companies took their case to the Competition Appeal Court in March. But in a dramatic turn, the Commission itself reversed its stance after Vodacom and Maziv offered a new set of conditions, and it ended up supporting the merger at the Appeal Court.
The court has now cleared the way, but with strings attached: Maziv must keep its fiber network open to smaller ISPs, provide free connections to public facilities, stick to capital spending targets, and avoid anti-competitive bundling.
With those terms, the deal is technically approved but not yet final; Vodacom and Maziv still need sign-off from the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA). If all goes smoothly, the partnership could reshape South Africa’s internet landscape within a few years, with future “back-and-forth” hopefully limited to fiber packets, not lawyers’ letters.
Louis Eriakha
