Vodacom CPA compliance not in question

Today's Business Day has reported that Vodacom has been issued with a compliance notice by the National Consumer Commission for refusing to amend customer contracts. 

Speaking about the compliance notice and the article, Portia Maurice, Chief Officer Corporate Affairs said:

"We were surprised to receive a compliance notice from the National Consumer Commission as we already had an amendment process underway and had agreed with them an implementation date of 31 October. Similarly, there is simply no basis for the statement in today's Business Day that we have refused to amend our customer contracts.  This statement is patently untrue since we have been in the process of amending the contracts for some time."

Vodacom has been cooperating fully with the NCC with respect to updating its contracts in line with the new regulations published at the same time that the Consumer Protection Act came into force.  The regulations published in April varied considerably from the draft regulations previously discussed, which necessitated dialogue with the NCC.  As a result of this dialogue, the date of 31 October was agreed to implement the revised terms and conditions.  This was publicly acknowledged by the National Consumer Commissioner in a Business Report article entitled "Phone firms told to amend contracts" published on 18 July 2011.

Portia Maurice concluded:

"Given that discussions are already underway and that an implementation date has been publicly acknowledged, Vodacom regards the compliance notice as completely unwarranted.  The matter will be addressed directly with the NCC."