{"id":551989,"date":"2007-04-11T07:37:15","date_gmt":"2007-04-11T07:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/technology\/551989-was-telkom-s-ceo-sacked-because-of-corruption.html"},"modified":"2007-04-11T07:37:15","modified_gmt":"2007-04-11T07:37:15","slug":"was-telkom-s-ceo-sacked-because-of-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/technology\/551989-was-telkom-s-ceo-sacked-because-of-corruption.html","title":{"rendered":"Was Telkom\u2019s CEO sacked because of corruption?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recent media reports have bantered around a variety of reasons for the CEO\u2019s abdication, ranging from suggestions that Molotsane<\/a>
\n resigned to pursue other business interests to him bumping heads with the Department of Communications. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

The SENS report, released late on Thursday, said that Molotsane resigned from Telkom. This was taken as the \u2018accepted\u2019 reason for Molotsane\u2019s departure until Duncan McLeod<\/a>
\n , a Financial Mail IT journalist, suggested in his blog <\/a>
\nthat the Telkom CEO was in fact sacked.<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

The Weekender\u2019s Lesley Stones also suggested in her article <\/a>
\nthat Molotsane was shown the door once again contradicting the official reports pointing to a resignation. Stones further highlighted tensions between Molotsane and some of his senior managers, Government and even the president.<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

The ex-Telkom CEO\u2019s lack of vision and shareholder discontent were also given as possible reasons for his departure.<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

Corruption<\/strong>
\n <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

The notion of corruption was tabled in a Business Times article<\/a>
\n , suggesting that \u201che [Molotsane] was beginning to feel alone and frustrated in his bid to clean up inherent corruption within the group\u201d.<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

According to this article \u201chis business associates say Molotsane was regularly pressured from powerful political quarters to influence decisions concerning the awarding of contracts. His resistance cost him key political support.\u201d<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

Trade union Solidarity<\/a>
\n has requested that allegations about corruption be cleared up as soon as possible through an independent investigation.<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

\u201cAllegations of corruption surfaced at the resignation of the company\u2019s previous chief executive. These allegations can only be allayed by an independent investigation,\u201d Hermann said. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

Hermann noted that the allegations of corruption were nothing new at Telkom and added that Solidarity\u2019s attempts to get to the bottom of these claims had to date proven fruitless. <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

Something even more sinister?<\/strong>
\n <\/font>\n<\/p>\n

A recent article <\/a>
\nby Duncan McLeod stirs up even more questions regarding corruption at Telkom, this time about the fixed line operator possibly overpaying for the 75% stake in Nigerian Multi-Links<\/a>
\n .<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

According to McLeod \u201ctwo separate sources, both outside Telkom but with close links to the company, allege that it paid $20m more than the owners of Multi-Links were asking for the business. The sources, who don\u2019t want to be named, do not say what might have happened to this money.\u201d<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

Telkom denied these allegations, stating that: \u201cThe asset was evaluated by independent evaluators at $303m. The sellers wanted $290m. Telkom offered $280m, which was accepted.\u201d<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

If the assertions by the two sources prove to be credible it further justifies Solidarity\u2019s call for a full scale investigation into corruption at Telkom.<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

Despite great uncertainty regarding Molotsane\u2019s departure at Telkom and widespread speculation as to the reasons behind his sudden move, the incumbent operator remains tight lipped about the issue saying that they are not willing to comment.<\/font>\n <\/p>\n

Comments<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is a great deal of speculation surrounding Papi Molotsane\u2019s sudden exit from the incumbent operator. The latest reports suggest that corruption may have played a role.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-551989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551989"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551989\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}