MTN tackles township fintech founder in trademark battle

A Mpumalanga entrepreneur has embarked on a tough mission to fight back against telecommunications giant MTN in what is turning into a David versus Goliath battle over one of kasi’s everyday words.

BozzaPay founder and group CEO Zinkie Sithole, who was left with a disability after a car crash more than a decade ago and uses a wheelchair, is refusing to surrender his fintech company’s name after MTN demanded that it stop using “Bozza”.

The company is targeting the largely cash-driven township economy, including spaza shops and taxi ranks, where it wants merchants, taxi operators and commuters to transact without physical cash.

That ambition adds a commercial edge to the trademark battle because MTN argues that combining “Bozza + pay” could increase consumer confusion as it also provides fintech services.

The confrontation was triggered by a September 7 letter of demand from MTN’s lawyers, ENSafrica, warning the fledgling Barberton company that it could face legal proceedings if it failed to comply.

MTN says it owns various trademarks incorporating Bozza, with its earliest registration dating from July 25, 2011.

“Our client has spent a considerable amount of time, money and effort promoting its goods and services rendered under its Bozza trade mark,” reads the letter.

“Our client has thus also acquired a substantial reputation, with accompanying goodwill and common law rights in its Bozza trade mark, in addition to the statutory rights in its trade mark through registration.”

MTN warned that the BozzaPay name could lead consumers to believe the businesses were connected.

“Our client is concerned that members of the public may be confused or deceived into believing that your company is in some way related to it,” its lawyers wrote.

MTN instructed BozzaPay to “immediately cease” using its company name and Bozza trademark and demanded an undertaking that it would never again use or register Bozza or anything confusingly similar as a trademark, company name, domain name, social-media profile or trading style.

“We await your response by close of business on 21 September 2026, failing which we will take our client’s instructions to institute the appropriate legal proceedings against you.”

BozzaPay is preparing to defend its name, arguing that the dispute concerns something older than either company’s fintech ambitions: township language.

“Bozza” is widely used in South African vernacular and tsotsitaal to mean “boss”, “the best” or “the real deal”.

“Nobody invented this word. It belongs to the people,” B-Spoke, BozzaPay’s artificial intelligence spokesperson, said on behalf of the company.

BozzaPay says having an AI spokesperson reflects the technology-first business Sithole is trying to build.

“Bozza is a word from our streets. It means boss. It means you are in charge of your own life and your own money. That is exactly what our app is about.”

B-Spoke said Sithole was shocked that MTN would target a township entrepreneur living with a disability who was trying to build an emerging technology business.

“We do not believe any single company should be able to lock an everyday township word away from the very people who gave it life,” B-Spoke said.

BozzaPay points out that MTN does not hold a registration for BozzaPay, while its filings include names such as BozzaTalk, Bozza Gigs and Go Big Go Bozza.

The fintech, established this year, has reserved its right to seek removal or rectification of MTN’s Bozza registrations on grounds including that the word is laudatory, descriptive, non-distinctive or customary, as well as possible non-use challenges.

It remains open to negotiating a coexistence arrangement but says surrendering its name is not on the table.

Responding to Sunday World, MTN SA said its Bozza registrations cover financial services in the fintech and payments space.

“These are the very services that Bozzapay Fin Holdings (Pty) Ltd claims to offer under a name and trade mark that wholly incorporates MTN’s trade mark BOZZA and is therefore confusingly similar to the BOZZA trade mark,” MTN said.

MTN also rejected BozzaPay’s argument that an everyday township word could not be monopolised.

“It is a basic and well-established principle of trade mark law, in South Africa and internationally, that everyday words can and regularly do function as trade marks, provided they are not descriptive of the goods or services for which they are registered.”

It also rejected suggestions that a corporate giant was preying on a smaller kasi enterprise.

“The suggestion that trade mark enforcement equates to predatory conduct is a mischaracterisation of the legitimate exercise of rights that any rights-holder is entitled, and indeed duty-bound, to undertake.”

But despite the hardening positions, MTN left the door open for talks.

“MTN will always engage in a responsible manner in the resolution of any disputes,” it said.

MTN said it had not received BozzaPay’s formal response and would continue engaging through appropriate channels if it did.

The telecoms company said protecting its intellectual property was not inconsistent with supporting entrepreneurship and innovation.

“A robust intellectual property framework benefits all businesses, including emerging enterprises, by ensuring that entrepreneurs can build and protect their own distinctive brands.”