 |
SATRA to take legal action against call-back operators
A highly misleading press release put out by illegal call-back telephone operators today has prompted an angry response from the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority.
Satra says the South African Call-Back Association (SACBA) is blatantly attempting to mislead the media and the public by claiming in the press release that Satra has withdrawn its recent 1 September ban on call-back telephone operations in South Africa.
"This is a scandalous misrepresentation of the situation which remains, in fact, unchanged since Satra's announcement of the ban in August," said Satra Councillor Tshidi Seane.
"The breathtaking arrogance and dishonesty of this announcement is almost beyond belief and I'm afraid it is testing our patience to the limit," Seane said.
Seane said the gravity of the misrepresentation by the SACBA was regarded so seriously by Satra that it had now decided to take legal action against the call-back operations despite its earlier undertaking to hold off until current litigation was settled. These actions would be backdated to 1 September.
Satra's pronouncement was a result of the coming into effect on 1 July 1997 of the sections of the Telecommunications Act which rendered call-back illegal.
"For the record, and because its implications seem to have been overlooked by some, we attach verbatim our press release of 12 August this year which announced and motivated the ban," Seane said.
End
