#MondayBlues: Telecel -Gvt Deal Facing Mass Sabotage!

23 November 2015

Its been just some few weeks since the Zimbabwean government and the Amsterdam-based VimpelCom Ltd announced the sell of its 51.9 percent owned subsidiary, Global Telecom Holding S.A.E, and yet back home, Telecel Zimbabwe has been reported to be stripping off the network!

Sources close to developments have divulged to #MondayBlues, your no holds barred tech talk that Vimplecom has sent its own engineers last week who are now technically stripping off the network, in an unclear move which has caused serious infighting between management and Vimplecom.

The Vimplecom based engineers who made a surprise appearance in Zimbabwe last week are giving directives to dismantle some Telecel base stations in the northern part of the country, claiming its part of the network optimisation.

Telecel Zimbabwe has its northern side infrastructure run by Huawei Tech a Chineese company while their southern side is run by their rival and strong competitor ZTE, another Chinese based company .

“Ironically these orders are being given to ZTE engineers to optimise Huawei network, causing serious conflicts at Telecel Zimbabwe, and this indeed is not even optimisation but we are seeing the network being stripped off,” said a source.

These are just but a few problems we have already received which the government through the Ministry of ICT Postal and Courier Services will urgently need to look into if this deal is going to be profitable at all.

The government and management have both been blamed for not protecting their interests but rather buying a company they are not yet ready to run. The government and Vimplecom still have the next 60 days to finalise the deal and Vimplecom had a sticking clause which they did not agree with government hence its becoming proactive to protect their interests just incase.

On the other hand, government can not yet make sweeping changes to their new baby which they trust the local management to be the surety and can only hope all is well under them.

However heads are likely going to roll as the Zimbabwean government will never be a lame duck while their investment is going down the drain as a showdown is imminent in the next few days said a source from government.

#MondayBlues will keep you updated with latest development surrounding the issues, in the meantime we wait for official comments from all parties whom we have already contacted.

- Technomag Zimbabwe