20 November 2009
	PROFILE New vision at Telkom By Prakash Naidoo

With the unbundling of its stake in Vodacom and the promise of good first-quarter earnings, new Telkom chairman Jeff Molobela believes his arrival as head of the board is perfectly timed to help oversee the fixed-line operator's transition into the next "exciting and challenging" phase. "Telkom is ready to pursue a new strategy without these constraints [Vodacom] and my challenge will be to get the board to focus on assisting management to achieve this new vision," says Molobela, who replaced Shirley Lue Arnold as a non executive director and chairman of Telkom on November 1. In May, Telkom unbundled the remaining 35% of its holding in Vodacom to its shareholders. Speaking ahead of his first board meeting on Friday, Molobela says he is acutely aware of Telkom's role in the economy and is sensitive to grumbles that high fixed-line costs affect SA's ability to be competitive. Though government remains the biggest shareholder (39,8% of Telkom's Class A shares), he says Telkom is not a parastatal. "As the board, our responsibilities are also to the minority shareholders," says Molobela, who admits finding a balance between the competing demands will be among his first tasks. Molobela was little-known before his appointment, but comes to the job with experience in financial services. With an MBA from London University's Imperial College Business School, he has served on numerous company boards and board committees, and consulted to Denel and Armscor. In 2007 he was involved in the development and implementation of the nationwide Wi-Fi Telecoms project. He was also responsible for developing a business plan for a Wi-Max roll-out for submission to industry regulator Icasa. He has served on the boards of Africon Engineering, Transnet, Primegro, CBS Properties, Growthpoint Properties and Decillion Ltd. He is on the boards of Concorde Foundry Vereeniging, N3TC Ltd and Cashbuild Ltd. One issue the Telkom board and management will have to confront is the constant complaints of the high cost of its broadband services. Molobela says this ultimately will be decided by the markets., he did acknowledge that it was important that the operator "understands our market and where or revenue is generated."