At the centre of the debacle is a controversial arrangement BBC had with the Gauteng ANC provincial executive committee before the national elections, which stated that the council would benefit from the programme.
Ramokgoba said at the time that he had leveraged a R2 billion investment from Vumatel that would roll out fibre in townships and offer connectivity to households at affordable rates.Thabo said that they intended to interdict the process from going forward. “The black government is doing this to black people. We are in this nonsense. Government can’t empower small, medium and macro enterprises [SMMEs]. We are powerless. The only way is to go to court,” Thabo said.
“Any entrepreneur or business, be it a member of the BBC or not, that is disgruntled about a specific award of any tender is more that welcome to approach the courts of law. “In this context, the BBC has not raised the matter with us and we continue to engage them on matters to resuscitate the economy during the current pandemic and beyond. As a government that upholds matters of engagement, we remain open to a discussion with them to deliberate on all matters that they bring to our attention,” Ncapayi said.