Vodacom Maziv Merger Heads to Court After Years of Delays

After three years of delays, the Vodacom-Maziv merger is finally heading to court. In July 2025, the Competition Appeal Court will hear Vodacom and Maziv’s challenge against the Competition Tribunal’s decision to block their deal in South Africa.

What’s unusual, though—the tribunal still hasn’t explained why it rejected the merger, even though its deadline to do so has long passed.

To give a bit of history, let’s look at the players. Vodacom is South Africa’s leading mobile provider, consistently holding over 40% of the market since 2016 according to Statista. But as mobile data growth slows, the company has been looking to fibre as the next big thing. That’s where Maziv comes in.

Maziv owns Dark Fibre Africa and Vumatel, the latter being South Africa's largest fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) provider, with around 36% market share in both homes passed and homes connected. By acquiring a 30-40% stake in Maziv, Vodacom hoped to strengthen its fibre presence in South Africa and compete with MTN and Telkom.

At first, the deal looked promising. Even South Africa’s telecom regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA), approved it, calling it beneficial for the public. But the Competition Commission stepped in, arguing that Vodacom would gain too much control over fibre infrastructure, potentially limiting competition.

Then in October 2024, the Competition Tribunal sided with the Commission and blocked the merger. Vodacom and Maziv quickly appealed, leading to this upcoming court battle.

This delay has already cost South Africa’s fibre market a lot of money. Maziv’s parent company, CIVH, estimates that between R3 billion and R4 billion ($165 million to $220 million) in potential fibre investment has been held back due to uncertainty. Regulators argue that these deals need strict oversight to prevent monopolies, while Vodacom claims the delays are slowing down much-needed fibre expansion.

Meanwhile, the fibre market in South Africa isn’t standing still. While the merger remains in limbo, other players in the market are capitalizing on the opportunity. MTN has been expanding its local network, recently rolling out Africa’s first large-scale 800G optical network with Huawei to boost high-speed connectivity. Telkom’s Openserve has passed over 1.2 million homes with fibre, growing its broadband subscriber base.

With competitors rapidly expanding, Vodacom’s stalled merger puts it at risk of falling behind.