The Cell C banner erected by a disgruntled customer has had the tongues in Johannesburg properly wagging last week. The huge sign, which claims that the mobile provider is “the most useless” in South Africa, has seen the operator in court today applying to have it removed and the owner punished.

The operator launched an urgent court interdict on Friday to have the banner removed, but Judge Sharise Weiner at the South Gauteng High Court this afternoon dismissed the operator’s application – meaning that the banner can stay.

Court records have also finally clarified why the disgruntled defendant in the case, George Prokas, erected the banner in the first place.

Prokas claims that he took his daughter’s smartphone to a repair shop, where a bill of R5 754 was run up against the contract by employees at the store. Because Cell C refused to remove him from a debtors black list after he declined to pay the debt, Prokas spent more than R60 000 on the now infamous sign.

“The defendant says his account was handed over to a debt collection agency. Defendant wanted his default listing to be removed because he said a handset in repair racked up a R5 000 bill. Defendant then threatened to erect banner if the phone dispute was not solved by 5pm 24 October,” said Fin24 in a live blog during the hearing.

Cell C took the matter to court with a claim of defamation and application to have the banner removed. Prokas’ opinion was honestly held, he found, and therefore allowed under South African law.

Judge Weiner, however, has dismissed the case in favour of Prokas, awarding him victory and legal costs.

We’ll update with more details and comment later.