Free article preview

The fight for cellphones

Amid local trade wars, Vodacom-Congo is feeling the pinch and contemplating pulling out of the DRC

Vodacom-Congo may be Congo-Kinshasa’s largest mobile telephone concern, with more than 4 million subscribers, although its rival Zain claims to have more. Vodacom’s internal battles are bigger still. Vodacom International owns 51% of the shares; Congo Wireless Network, based in Johannesburg, South Africa, owns 49%. They agree on little. Other conflicts divide CWN’s shareholders. Vodacom-Congo is feeling the pinch, and in mid-May the employment authority, the Inspection Générale du Travail, gave it leave to dismiss 11% of its workforce; it employs 500 people directly and perhaps ten times as many indirectly. That prospect upsets Labour Minister François-Joseph Nzanga Mobutu Ngbangawe (son of the late Joseph Mobutu Sese Seko) while the trades unions complain that the company has failed to produce the financial statements needed to justify the cuts....

(This article contains approximately 592 words)

end of free article preview

Current subscribers: log in now to read the complete article. Misplaced your password? Then click here for a password reminder.

Not a subscriber? Then you can read this article in full either by becoming a subscriber now, for 3, 6 or 12 months, or you can buy this individual article.

Subscribe to Africa Confidential:
Buy this article:

3-month subscription
Prices from £205.00 (+ VAT where applicable)

6-month subscription
Prices from £376.00 (+ VAT where applicable)

12-month subscription
Prices from £705.00 (+ VAT where applicable)
UK & European Union
£17.00 (+ VAT where applicable)

Rest of the world
$27.00

If you have a print subscription already, click here for a password that gives you full access to the website.
If you are logged in, but still cannot access the full text of this article, email customer services or telephone us on +44(0)1638 743633.

Africa Confidential's reporting and analysis is valued by a wide range of organisations and individuals: from corporate executives, country risk analysts, national politicians and members of the diplomatic corps, to intelligence operatives, academics, journalists and NGO personnel.

Here's what our readers say about us:

"We regard Africa Confidential as one of our best and most reliable sources of information and analysis."

Intelligence Assessment Service, Privy Council Office, Government of Canada

"You are the best reporter on Africa alive. I look forward to your Intel."

Robert Stewart, CEO, Hawk Uranium Inc., USA

"If you want the detail and you want the dirt, the little blue newsletter [Africa Confidential] that drops through your letter box is like having your own private spook who knows Africa inside out and who's also one hell of a gossip."

Jonathan Miller, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, Channel 4 News, London, UK

"Since the demise of reporting on Africa in Western newspapers, and especially in the UK, in recent years, Africa Confidential has become ever more indispensable to anyone trying to make sense of the continent.

It provides the context one needs to understand vast changes Sudan has undergone since the signing of the peace agreement in 2005 and the explosion of conflict in Darfur.

The scope of its coverage of everything from the latest mining deals and rebel uprisings in the Democratic Republic of Congo to the political crisis in Kenya since the 2007 election is simply unparalleled."

Karl Maier, Africa & Middle East Editor, Bloomberg News

Free article preview

The fight for cellphones

Amid local trade wars, Vodacom-Congo is feeling the pinch and contemplating pulling out of the DRC

end of free article preview

articles by country