JOHANNESBURG, Oct 29 (Reuters) – South Africa’s Competition Tribunal blocked Vodacom’s proposed merger with fibre group Maziv on Tuesday, a blow for the ambitions of the country’s biggest mobile operator to expand its fibre footprint nationwide.

The Competition Tribunal, which makes the final ruling on deals, said in a statement that its reasons for the decision will be issued in due course.

Vodacom announced in 2021 that it would pay 6 billion rand ($339 million) in cash and in certain fibre assets valued at 4.2 billion rand for a 30% stake in a newly formed company called Maziv, the parent company of Dark Fibre Africa and Vumatel.

But last year the Competition Commission recommended to the tribunal that the proposed merger be prohibited on the grounds that it is likely to substantially prevent or lessen competition in several markets.

The commission said the conditions offered by the merger parties did not fully address the resultant harm to competition.

($1 = 17.7024 rand)

(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla; Editing by Jan Harvey)