New Telkom board chairman Jabulane Mabuza believes that the government, its shareholder, can not determine its strategy, Business Day reported on Tuesday (20 November 2012).<\/p>\n
“The day shareholders give you a strategy, they may as well come and run the business,” he was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n
“I don’t see the government as a shareholder any differently to the other shareholders.”<\/p>\n
This was in stark contrast to the government’s plans to impose a new blueprint on the parastatal, according the newspaper.<\/p>\n
The government devised policies that informed Telkom’s strategy, Mabuza said.<\/p>\n
The government is the JSE-listed company’s largest shareholder with 39.8 percent. The Public Investment Corporation owns 10.9 percent stake in Telkom.<\/p>\n
Mabuza said Cabinet could not impose strategy on a listed company.<\/p>\n
“It cannot work that way. Government, as a shareholder, has a forum that it can use to persuade other shareholders,” he told Business Day.<\/p>\n
Mabuza was appointed on Friday and had to develop strategies that would be sold to shareholders. He believed Telkom could strike a balance between meeting the government’s socio-economic goals and the public sector’s needs.<\/p>\n
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