Telkom CEO mum on retrenchments as talks begin

The profile and number of employees who had accepted such packages was not immediately available.

Although it seems the phone group will be in favour of extending the moratorium, unions look set to pull out all the stops to ensure that no employees are laid off beyond March 31, given Telkom’s continued impressive financial performance which they feel does not justify any retrenchments.

"I think it would be too premature to talk about what we are going to do. We are going to engage with the bargaining unit and talk about how we would like to move forward. There are a number of issues that we’d like to discuss but all I can say is whatever issues we come up with would be fair from our side."

"I would like to give the process a chance to unravel. Telling you what we are going to do might be pre-empting negotiations. No, I’m not going to say what we’ll do – that’s going to be part of the negotiations but we’ll be fair; you have to treat people fairly if you expect them to also commit themselves."

Molotsane acknowledged that the arrival of the second national operator could poach Telkom’s workers but remained unfazed.

The moratorium was put in place last February when Oupa Magashula – who has since resigned from Telkom along with Pinky Moholi and Belinda Williams – was still in charge of human resources.

Charlotte Mokoena has since replaced Magashula while chief of sales and marketing Moholi was succeeded by Wally Beelders with Williams’ position remaining vacant.

Telkom will be expanding beyond South Africa this year, although its first attempt to enter Nigeria failed due to the uncertainty around the undersea cable as well as the fact that the privatisation agency wanted to get involved in the business plan of the telecommunications utility Nitel.

"It didn’t make sense. The numbers did not add up," Molotsane said.

"But we’ll go back to Nigeria if it makes sense and if these issues are addressed."

The company – which is currently negotiating with various governments – also looks set to enter Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya.

Other markets, including Tanzania and Mozambique where its 50%-held subsidiary Vodacom has operations have not been identified as part of Telkom’s expansion plans as they do not match the company’s model, Molotsane added.

Vodacom generated 31.4% or 8.1 billion rand of the dual-listed group’s revenue of 23.5 billion rand for the six-month period ended September 2005.

Telkom may bundle services with Vodacom – Africa’s second largest mobile operator – and possibly co-brand some of the products and services moving forward.

Molotsane believes rural and per-urban communities would see an improvement in tele-density over the years as the company accelerates broadband rollout and possibly deploys WiMax technologies in under-serviced areas.