According to an opinion piece in the City Press by Ignitive advertising agency founder\u00a0Muzi Kuzwayo, Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko is criticised \u2013 and his success at\u00a0Telkom frowned upon \u2013 because he is a black man.<\/p>\n
If he was white, according to Kuzwayo, he would have been \u201chailed as the white knight that saved the natives \u2013 the classic storyline in South African boardrooms\u201d.<\/p>\n
Kuzwayo echoes these sentiments about Telkom chairman\u00a0Jabu Mabuza, whose \u201csuccess\u201d, he argues, hurts white people, owning to the fact that he used to be a taxi driver.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir jealous hearts are asking ‘who the hell you are to succeed with your Bantu education’ when their white government gave them every crutch and prosthesis to succeed, yet they still came out second.”<\/p>\n
“You see, nothing hurts them more than losing to a black person, and Telkom\u2019s success hurts them because it disproves the half-truths they\u2019ve been peddling,\u201d said\u00a0Kuzwayo.<\/p>\n
An example of the aforementioned success was the decision not to sell a stake in Telkom to Korean company\u00a0KT Corporation\u0082 in 2012.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said government was wrong by refusing the Koreans\u2019 offer to buy shares in Telkom at R24 each. When Mabuza came in as chairman and appointed Sipho Maseko, another hard-worker, as the CEO, the turnaround began.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now Telkom is sitting at R60 per share, said Kuzwayo, yet nobody is celebrating Maseko, \u201cinstead they are finding faults with him\u201d.<\/p>\n
Kuzwayo also touched on the suspension of Telkom\u2019s financial director\u00a0Jacques Schindeh\u00fctte, who \u201cperhaps\u201d cast Maseko as a \u201ctoken black\u201d. He said that the commentators had expected the white financial director to be the \u201cstar of the show\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor those of us who grew up during the days of ‘k****r-bashing’, Maseko is the ‘Bruce Lee of the boardroom’. Lee was the first non-white to kick white men’s backsides. Maseko freed us from the white blackmail that states this country will be nothing without white skills,\u201d said Kuzwayo.<\/p>\n
Telkom is currently in the process of retrenching a large chunk of its management workforce<\/a> \u2013 which could affect over 2,600 staff members \u2013 as part of a cost-saving strategy. The company was heavily criticised by workers\u2019 union Solidarity for the planned retrenchments.<\/p>\n In his personal capacity, Maseko has been accused of using cloned number plates<\/a> on his car\u00a0and racking up R30,000 in fines.<\/p>\n According to a new report in the Sunday Times, delays in the police inquiry into Maseko\u2019s cloned number plates have stalled the filing of court papers against the Telkom CEO.<\/p>\n Mabena Motshoane \u2013 the man whose plates were allegedly cloned \u2013 was waiting for the police to gather all the facts before he proceeded with legal action.<\/p>\n The reason for the delays are unknown, with police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Khensani Magoai saying that the matter needed \u201cfurther investigation\u201d.<\/p>\n The public protector\u2019s office has confirmed it is also looking into the matter after receiving reports that City of Joburg officials interfered in the initial investigation.<\/p>\n Maseko has said that he is willing to resolve the matter, within the confines of the law.<\/p>\n Telkom CEO cloned plate case heads to court: report<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Telkom CEO investigated for cloned number plates<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Telkom\u2019s Maseko pulled into \u201cemergency meeting\u201d<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMore on Maseko<\/h3>\n