04 September 2020

Paratus is also under fire for allegedly trying to block the municipality’s plans to provide free internet to residents

The City of Windhoek has threatened to send in its security forces on Paratus Telecom if it does not stop installing its cables around the Namibian capital.

The two have been arguing for months as both continue to implement their plans to penetrate a telecommunications industry currently dominated by MTC and TN Mobile. 

Suspended City of Windhoek information technology manager Reckliff Kandjiriomuini recently wrote to Paratus accusing it of deliberately ignoring municipal laws by continuously digging trenches on municipal land.

“The City management has picked up that your company has continuously acted in ignorance,” he said.

The letter was written to Paratus chief executive officer Barney Harmse on 2 July 2020, accusing the company of “unauthorised excavation, trenching and/or putting up structures on public streets and sidewalks without the council’s permission and/or not complying with the council’s conditions”.

“You are thus hereby once again instructed to stop with all your trenching and duct installations in public space,” Kandjiriomuini wrote. “In the meantime, the City will deploy law enforcement to its fullest to ensure that you comply with this instruction,” Kandjiriomuini said. “The pressure on Paratus comes after the High Court ordered the municipality to refrain from “unlawfully confiscating, seizing, taking or removing the Paratus equipment being utilised for the installation of infrastructure”.

Paratus is also under fire for allegedly trying to block the municipality’s plans to provide free internet to residents.

The company has yet to comment publicly, and has not responded to questions sent to it two weeks ago.