Debbie
Banned
So this is what really happened at Telkom’s AGM on Friday. This is a severely edited version. Anyone who wants clarification or more info then just PM me. I took detailed notes.
The meeting was convened at 10am, and seven propositions were immediately put to the vote, apparently without discussion as to the implications of these proposals.
Unfortunately I was tangling with Telkom outside for the first ten minutes. Telkom kept denying that I was a shareholder. Amazingly though, when I eventually produced my share certificate, they let me in.
By the time I got in it was 10:10, and the voting forms were already being collected. There were about 150 people present, many who entered the auditorium at the same time I did. We were told to wait for 45 minutes while the auditors counted the votes. They must have difficulty counting if they needed that long.
At 11:00, the results of the voting were read out, and six of the seven proposals had passed. Gee whizz, how surprising. The floor was then opened up to comments and questions. Alacos (Mike Alachouzos) was the first to speak. He raised a number of legal points which effectively questioned the legitimacy of the AGM:
1. The proxy forms were not in compliance with the Companies Act.
2. There was a contradiction between Telkom’s Articles of Association and the Notice of an AGM with regards to proxies.
3. The terms of the Special Resolutions that were voted on were not set out in Telkom’s Notice of an AGM, in contravention of the Companies Act.
4. Alacos raised another point that concerned the Register of Members. I do not wish to go into detail about this, as it is certainly a subject for legal dispute. Suffice it to say that, if alacos is correct and can prove it in a court, then certain members of Tekom’s Board have been invalidly appointed. What’s more is that these invalidly appointed directors have in turn appointed the new CEO, Mr Moletsane. Alacos contended that, if he were correct, then the validity of Mr Moletsane’s appointment is therefore in question.
There was quite a bit of amusement in the auditorium while alacos was arguing this last point. I mean, here alacos was contending that Mr Moletsane was not the real CEO! Alacos followed his comments up by stating that he’s “sure Mr Moletsane is a very nice guy, but [that] this was a point of law”.
Alacos went on to say that the validity of Telkom’s two previous AGM’s was being contested in court, but that Telkom had not disclosed this to shareholders nor to Washington’s SEC. The heart of the matter is that this is a dispute involving the transaction of about R2 billion Rands of Telkom’s shares, and Telkom was acting improperly by not disclosing this in accordance with the required level good corporate governance. Like Business Day reported, the chairperson denied any knowledge of these lawsuits. Ain’t it incredible that the Chair of Telkom doesn’t know this? That, or she’s lying. You guess what I think.
The next shareholder brought up the language issue. He said that the notices of the AGM were not sent in at least one African language. While he was speaking, the Chairperson didn’t seem to be paying attention (I think she was rattled by what alacos had just said). There was an amusing moment when the shareholder stopped what he was saying and asked the Chairperson to please pay attention to him.
The Chair then asked if the speaker was a Khulisa shareholder, and when he said he was, the Chair told him he had no status at the AGM, and nor did he have voting rights. The attitude towards this shareholder was one of ‘sit down, shut up, you’re nothing in this meeting’. Yeah, he’s nothing. Not only does he own part of the company, but technically he also employs you, Ms Chair…or didn’t you know that either??
Another guy hinted that Telkom was not transparent in issues regarding the appointment of upper management, and he went on to question the rather farcical manner in which directors step down and then are immediately reappointed to their positions. The subtext of all this was the strange circumstances surrounding the suspension of the three senior managers. The Chair basically refused to discuss the issue. Furthermore, she said that Telkom would “not be part of media debates” surrounding the management disputes at the company. The Chair also said that the media put out false information, and there was nothing Telkom could do about this. Shame Telkom, must be hard with the evil media lying about you all the time. Tell me where the bad newspapers touched you…?
I only heard one positive comment in English. A shareholder said he was impressed with the progress Telkom had made in accommodating more languages. About a third of the comments were made in languages I did not understand, and there was no translator.
Alacos then spoke again, asking to see a copy of the shareholders register. This turned out to be quite an amusing back-and-forth exchange, with the Chair insisting that there was nothing irregular going on and saying that alacos could discuss the matter with Telkom “after” the meeting. This register was never produced. Sure Telkom, there is nothing irregular going on. We believe you….
I was one of the last to speak. I spoke about the growing level of public anger towards Telkom, and asked questions like “what is Telkom doing to mitigate the growing consumer anger and activism against Telkom?”. I accused them of gaining a reputation for being customer-unfriendly, and said that this would come back to “bite Telkom in the arse”. I spoke quite a lot about MyADSL, referred to the meeting rpm and Antowan had with Papi Moletsane, but said that more needed to be done. The Chair kept saying that Telkom does respond to customers criticisms. I said that she was spewing pure rhetoric.
The meeting was adjourned, by which time the Minister of Communications was long gone. Bet she misses Sizwe, as we all know Sizwe too would have hightailed it outta there at the first opportunity.
I got to speak to Papi Moletsane for a good ten minutes after the AGM. I also spoke to a group of Telkom directors and chief officers. What they all had to say to me, and what I had to say to them, is in another thread in the “Consumerism” section.
The meeting was convened at 10am, and seven propositions were immediately put to the vote, apparently without discussion as to the implications of these proposals.
Unfortunately I was tangling with Telkom outside for the first ten minutes. Telkom kept denying that I was a shareholder. Amazingly though, when I eventually produced my share certificate, they let me in.
By the time I got in it was 10:10, and the voting forms were already being collected. There were about 150 people present, many who entered the auditorium at the same time I did. We were told to wait for 45 minutes while the auditors counted the votes. They must have difficulty counting if they needed that long.
At 11:00, the results of the voting were read out, and six of the seven proposals had passed. Gee whizz, how surprising. The floor was then opened up to comments and questions. Alacos (Mike Alachouzos) was the first to speak. He raised a number of legal points which effectively questioned the legitimacy of the AGM:
1. The proxy forms were not in compliance with the Companies Act.
2. There was a contradiction between Telkom’s Articles of Association and the Notice of an AGM with regards to proxies.
3. The terms of the Special Resolutions that were voted on were not set out in Telkom’s Notice of an AGM, in contravention of the Companies Act.
4. Alacos raised another point that concerned the Register of Members. I do not wish to go into detail about this, as it is certainly a subject for legal dispute. Suffice it to say that, if alacos is correct and can prove it in a court, then certain members of Tekom’s Board have been invalidly appointed. What’s more is that these invalidly appointed directors have in turn appointed the new CEO, Mr Moletsane. Alacos contended that, if he were correct, then the validity of Mr Moletsane’s appointment is therefore in question.
There was quite a bit of amusement in the auditorium while alacos was arguing this last point. I mean, here alacos was contending that Mr Moletsane was not the real CEO! Alacos followed his comments up by stating that he’s “sure Mr Moletsane is a very nice guy, but [that] this was a point of law”.
Alacos went on to say that the validity of Telkom’s two previous AGM’s was being contested in court, but that Telkom had not disclosed this to shareholders nor to Washington’s SEC. The heart of the matter is that this is a dispute involving the transaction of about R2 billion Rands of Telkom’s shares, and Telkom was acting improperly by not disclosing this in accordance with the required level good corporate governance. Like Business Day reported, the chairperson denied any knowledge of these lawsuits. Ain’t it incredible that the Chair of Telkom doesn’t know this? That, or she’s lying. You guess what I think.
The next shareholder brought up the language issue. He said that the notices of the AGM were not sent in at least one African language. While he was speaking, the Chairperson didn’t seem to be paying attention (I think she was rattled by what alacos had just said). There was an amusing moment when the shareholder stopped what he was saying and asked the Chairperson to please pay attention to him.
The Chair then asked if the speaker was a Khulisa shareholder, and when he said he was, the Chair told him he had no status at the AGM, and nor did he have voting rights. The attitude towards this shareholder was one of ‘sit down, shut up, you’re nothing in this meeting’. Yeah, he’s nothing. Not only does he own part of the company, but technically he also employs you, Ms Chair…or didn’t you know that either??
Another guy hinted that Telkom was not transparent in issues regarding the appointment of upper management, and he went on to question the rather farcical manner in which directors step down and then are immediately reappointed to their positions. The subtext of all this was the strange circumstances surrounding the suspension of the three senior managers. The Chair basically refused to discuss the issue. Furthermore, she said that Telkom would “not be part of media debates” surrounding the management disputes at the company. The Chair also said that the media put out false information, and there was nothing Telkom could do about this. Shame Telkom, must be hard with the evil media lying about you all the time. Tell me where the bad newspapers touched you…?
I only heard one positive comment in English. A shareholder said he was impressed with the progress Telkom had made in accommodating more languages. About a third of the comments were made in languages I did not understand, and there was no translator.
Alacos then spoke again, asking to see a copy of the shareholders register. This turned out to be quite an amusing back-and-forth exchange, with the Chair insisting that there was nothing irregular going on and saying that alacos could discuss the matter with Telkom “after” the meeting. This register was never produced. Sure Telkom, there is nothing irregular going on. We believe you….
I was one of the last to speak. I spoke about the growing level of public anger towards Telkom, and asked questions like “what is Telkom doing to mitigate the growing consumer anger and activism against Telkom?”. I accused them of gaining a reputation for being customer-unfriendly, and said that this would come back to “bite Telkom in the arse”. I spoke quite a lot about MyADSL, referred to the meeting rpm and Antowan had with Papi Moletsane, but said that more needed to be done. The Chair kept saying that Telkom does respond to customers criticisms. I said that she was spewing pure rhetoric.
The meeting was adjourned, by which time the Minister of Communications was long gone. Bet she misses Sizwe, as we all know Sizwe too would have hightailed it outta there at the first opportunity.
I got to speak to Papi Moletsane for a good ten minutes after the AGM. I also spoke to a group of Telkom directors and chief officers. What they all had to say to me, and what I had to say to them, is in another thread in the “Consumerism” section.
Great work Debbie - I sincerely hope we start seeing the fruits in the near future