Mabuza gets testy, but Telkom fails the test

JABU Mabuza - Telkom's bombastic chairman, president of Business Unity SA and a former taxi driver - is not a happy man.

JABU Mabuza - Telkom's bombastic chairman, president of Business Unity SA and a former taxi driver - is not a happy man.

Not as furious as a Telkom customer trapped in one of those interminable customer service loops serenaded by an orchestra of elevator virtuosos - but pretty damn angry nonetheless.

Speaking at Telkom's annual shareholders' meeting on Wednesday, the 56-year-old Mabuza prefaced one answer with: "I'm not joining Hlaudi's call for journalists to get licensed - not yet - but ..."

Mabuza spent a good deal of time at that AGM (and before it too) venting his fury at journalists, at the media, at the way in which Telkom is portrayed, you name it.

It's just as well, though, that he refrained from aligning himself with Hlaudi Motsoeneng.

For those who missed it, Motsoeneng, the SABC's crafty and twitchy chief operating officer, called for journalists to be "licensed" a few weeks back - a bit rich seeing as he lied about having a matric so he could be hired by the state broadcaster.

What pushed Mabuza's buttons initially was how the Sunday Times had dared publish the views of former African Bank director Tami Sokutu.

Sokutu was, to put it delicately, unsympathetic when asked about the impact of the bank's lending on its poorer clients - a strategy that he, as chief risk officer, oversaw until he left for "health reasons".

Mabuza seems to believe that Sokutu's (apparently intoxicated) response should have stayed within the 18 holes of the country club.

But to suggest this is grounds for "licensing journalists" is wrong.

Countries that insist on some form of "licence" include such shining lights of democracy as China, North Korea, Egypt and Sudan, where licences are used to keep a lid on stories exposing corruption and fraud. So you can sort of see why Hlaudi is in favour of it.

After the AGM, Mabuza clarified what he meant. "There have been [articles recently] that have fed the narrative that make people like Hlaudi Motsoeneng make those sorts of comments. I'm not saying [licensing] is the right thing, but I have a view about some of the articles written," he said.

But if Mabuza was grumpy about the media before the AGM, he soon reached boiling point.

This was because of the flak he got for telling shareholders: "In the interests of time, the questions ... may not take longer than one minute to [ask]. Each shareholder shall be limited to one question."

Given that most investors get one crack at speaking to the bosses of the companies in which they invest - at the AGM once a year - this wasn't likely to be a popular diktat.

It certainly didn't impress Sasfin's David Shapiro.

Speaking to journalist Alec Hogg afterwards, Shapiro said: "To say you're restricted to one question goes against the whole spirit of the Companies Act. This is where you, as a shareholder, are allowed to interrogate the company."

Mabuza said this was a mischaracterisation - and was furious at the suggestion that he had shut down debate. "We didn't suppress people. Shareholders asked all the questions they wanted to ask."

But, he said, the AGM was "for shareholders, it wasn't a press conference". In the end, three pertinent questions were asked, including about the bizarre number plate debacle around CEO Sipho Maseko, and the murky circumstances of the "retirement" of former chief financial officer Jacques Schindehütte.

Telkom failed the most rudimentary transparency test by suspending Schindehütte on hazy charges last October, and refusing to say why. Then, unable to prove its case after nine months, Telkom slunk away, allowing Schindehütte to "retire with full benefits".

How much Schindehütte was paid to walk away would be telling - but Telkom won't reveal this either.

When pressed on this point at the AGM, Mabuza said the details were "confidential" and subject to a "nondisclosure" agreement.

Now, Mabuza is no fool. He has sat on more boards than Khulubuse Zuma has had chocolate eclairs, including SA Tourism, HCI, Tsogo Sun and Business Unity SA.

And he rightly pointed out that shareholders had done pretty well since he and Maseko took charge, with Telkom's share price up a startling 158% in the past year.

However, if Telkom dodges the harsh questions, this isn't likely to be the last time that questions will be asked about the company's notion of transparency.