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A concerned group of specialist magazine publishers has today lodged a formal complaint with the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) against the South African Post Office (SAPO), whom the complainants believe has been in breach of its licence conditions for several years.

The complainants are collectively represented by Bouwer Kobeli Morabe Attorneys, and include: Brooke Pattrick (Pty) Ltd, Creamer Media (Pty) Ltd, Crown Publications (Pty) Ltd, EE Publishers (Pty) Ltd, Interact Media Defined (Pty) Ltd, Now Media (Pty) Ltd, Technews Publishing (Pty) Ltd and TE Trade Events (Pty) Ltd.

Although this complaint is submitted on behalf of the eight publishing companies above, the complainants are aware of numerous other publishers (more than 28), mailing houses and printers who have similar complaints, and who have also suffered significant damages as a result of the non-performance of SAPO with its license conditions.

In terms of the relevant legislation, ICASA is tasked with the monitoring of SAPO to ensure the conditions of its licence are met, and to hear and deal with complaints against the licensee where breaches of license conditions occur.

The group of publishers will be asking ICASA to consider and review its numerous complaints against SAPO and the financial and other damage to the magazine publishing industry caused by SAPO's ongoing failure to meet its license conditions, and to sanction SAPO accordingly.

This could include: punitive financial sanctions against SAPO; entertaining alternative license applications to that of SAPO; considering additional licence applications to supplement the activities of SAPO; or even the removal of SAPO's (currently exclusive) licence.

This formal complaint lodged by the publishers with ICASA is a precursor to a possible class action following the legal process, for damages sustained by the publishers resulting from the failure of SAPO to meet its license conditions. However, before such class action, the publishers will follow all other avenues of due process, which includes the formal complaint to ICASA detailed above.

For further information, please contact:

Chris Yelland, EE Publishers
Spokesman for the Concerned Group of Specialist Magazine Publishers
Tel: 011 543 7000; Cell: 082 317-4175; Email: chris.yelland@ee.co.za