Cell C ordered to expunge owner of anti-Cell C banner
FAIRLAND – George Proka’s lawyer says they will take legal action if their client’s records are not expunged by 18 November.
George Prokas sent an urgent notice to Cell C on 14 November requesting the service provider to procure the removal of his name from the records of TransUnion Credit Bureau, and to expunge an alleged debt of R5 754.
Prokas put up a banner shaming Cell C at World Wear Shopping Centre situated on the corner of Beyer Naudé Drive and Wilson Street in Fairland following months of attempts to get help from the cellphone network’s Sandton City branch.
“I am instructed by my client to record that your client had no entitlement to repudiate its undertaking, and that it remains bound thereby. I am further instructed to record that the listing of my client as a ‘bad payer’ on the records of TransUnion is defamatory of my client, and has caused and is causing prejudice to him,” said Webber Raymond Druker who represents Prokas.
The letter further advised Cell C to comply by taking steps to procure the expungement of Prokas’s name from the records of TransUnion and to expunge the said “debt”.
Prokas and his attorney told Cell C to comply with their demands by 5pm on 18 November.
“[Failure to comply] my client will have no option but to, and will, take appropriate steps which are available to him at law for the exercise of his rights and the safeguarding of his reputation,” said Druker.
“All of my client’s rights and contentions are reserved.”
The dispute arose from a phone Prokas had taken up for his son with Cell C in 2013.
The phone’s indicated number turned out to belong to and was being used by a different person who ran up a bill of over R5 000.
Prokas subsequently ended the stop-order for the phone in October last year.
However, when attempting to buy a car earlier in 2014, Prokas discovered he was listed as a bad debtor as a result of the unpaid R5 000 from Cell C.
The banner erected by Prokas read, “The most useless service provider in SA- Cell C Sandton City…”
Below this message written in Cell C branding colours is the cellphone number of Cell C’s Franchise Manager Riaan van Rooyen.
Cell C since escalated the matter to court, and subsequently lost the case.
The banner is estimated to have cost Prokas over R60 000.
