Telkom CEO under fire
Embattled Telkom chief executive Reuben September will live to fight another day after a week of mounting pressure for him to be sacked.
On Friday the Pretoria High Court reserved judgment in the matter between Telkom and Maredi Telecom and Broadcasting, while a meeting the day before between September and officials of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) resulted in a temporary truce.
Maredi claims that Telkom breached its procurement policies and altered tender documents when it awarded a multimillion-rand “microwave” tender to Ericsson South Africa and Telsaf Data in December last year.
A ruling in Maredi’s favour will effectively confirm one of a series of allegations levelled against September by Telkom’s former chief operations officer, Motlatsi Nzeku.
Nzeku has compiled a dossier, tabled at a board meeting last week, in which he accuses September of flouting corporate governance, tender irregularities, breach of procurement policies and restructuring without board approval.
The allegations prompted the meeting between September and the CWU officials, who had called for his dismissal.
CWU secretary-general Gallant Roberts described the 45-minute meeting as “productive”, saying the union was satisfied “in terms of the responses from the CEO and the commitments he’s undertaken in getting to the bottom of the allegations”.
In an apparent about-turn, Roberts added that the “allegations remain untested until the report is released”.
In response to questions on Friday, Telkom insisted it did not comment “on behalf of the board”, and that the meeting with the union was “routine”.
It added that September himself had appointed the auditors to investigate the contents of the dossier.
Also on Thursday, communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri met with Telkom chair Shirley Lue Arnold after she had been presented with a copy of the dossier.
Telkom company secretary Matlakala Monyai would not comment on behalf of Arnold, saying any meeting she may have held with Matsepe-Casaburri would be considered “private business”.
The auditors are continuing to probe Nzeku’s allegations, while the board has also appointed a sub-committee to deal with matters relating to September and his leadership.
Maredi, meanwhile, has asked the court to review and set aside the awarding of the tender.
It claims the procurement process was riddled with corruption on the part of certain senior Telkom staff, including September, who allegedly enjoys close links with executives from Ericsson South Africa.
Telkom has denied this and says that the business relationship between September and management officials at Ericsson would not have influenced the outcome of the tender.
The company told the court that its tender processes and procedures are stringent and that it has a proud record of compliance to the strictest standards of corporate governance.
Yet it is understood that Matsepe-Casaburri is looking to replace September — regardless of the outcome of the probe — with a prominent former executive in the cellular industry being touted as a candidate.
In a bid to restore investor confidence, Telkom issued a statement this week saying that “any allegation against (it) or any employee or officer of the company is subject to the application of the company’s policies and procedures governing such matters”.
It added that September, the chief architect of the restructuring programme, and his executive were “fully mandated to conduct the organisational restructuring process”.
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