Vodacom said that the company has let go of 631 workers and contractors for fraud in the year to end March 2024.
This was after the telecommunications company investigated over 8,000 cases of fraud and maladministration.
Vodacom said that from April 1, 2023, to March 31, 2024, the company’s corporate security divisions looked at more than 8,652 cases of alleged fraud or irregularities.
The group’s division found that 6,872 of these cases were related to external fraud situations and 1,780 were related to internal cases.
“The end result ensured the arrest of 15 suspects and the dismissal of 631 staff/contractors,” Vodacom said in its latest Annual Report.
“These cases were reported and identified through various channels, including direct reports received from customers, service providers, online reports, referrals from business, the fraud management system and external whistleblowing.”
Vodacom is also in the process of merging with Vumatel and Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) and if it is approved it would create South Africa’s largest fibre network called Maziv.
On Friday, Vodacom Group CEO Shameel Joosub told the Competition Tribunal that Vodacom has no intention of raising prices for fibre connection.
Joosub said that the company also had no desire to cut out other telecommunication companies should the deal go through.
Fibre network operator Frogfoot has argued that Vodacom should not be allowed to merge as this would limit competition.
Moreover, the Competition Commission said that it is opposed to the merger as it would be anti-competitive.
Joosub said that Vodacom would not benefit if it used its shareholding in the new company to manipulate prices.
Vodacom has an 8% market share in the fibre sector.
“The price has to be in the context of competition. You can’t just willy-nilly put prices up,”Joosub argued.
He said customers would just leave if the cost to connect was increased and that would inadvertently increase Vodacom’s costs.
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