The Constitutional Court has upheld a judgement in favour of Altron Nexus relating to a City of Tshwane contract, according to a statement from Altron.
In July 2019, the Gauteng High Court set aside an Altron Nexus contract with the City of Tshwane due to the city not having followed internal processes.
The Municipal Broadband Network contract was awarded to a special purpose vehicle, Thobela Telecoms (RF) in June 2015. Altron Nexus is involved as the primary network designer and architect, supplier of broadband equipment and related services, as well as being a minority shareholder in Thobela Telecoms.
In September 2020, Thobela Telecoms was granted leave to appeal the decision of the High Court in the Supreme Court of Appeal. Altron appealed the matter and the court ruled in favour of Altron.
The City of Tshwane referred the matter to the Constitutional Court around December 2020 and sought leave to appeal the decision of the SCA.
Given that the city had filed their leave to appeal outside of the rules of court, in an order dated 19 May 2021, the Constitutional Court refused the application for condonation brought by the city for the late filing of its leave to appeal application. In addition, the court dismissed the City of Tshwane’s application for leave to appeal with costs, ordering that application did not have any reasonable prospects of success.