5 December 2008
editorial
Johannesburg — THE South African Communist Party's (SACP's) Blade Nzimande may have virtues, but a deep insight into the workings of corporate SA is not one of them. So when he lamented at the Black Management Forum some weeks ago that "our only real major asset is going to be controlled by the British ... this asset, Telkom, we sell it to imperialists", he was quickly reminded that Telkom was not in fact being sold.
The deal, as Nzimande was assured, is simply that the UK's Vodafone is buying 15% more of Vodacom to gain control of the cellphone company, while Telkom will hand over to its shareholders a chunk of the R22,5bn in cash it receives plus its remaining Vodacom shares.
But Nzimande, who never appeared much concerned about Barclays' purchase of Absa, for example, has since become even more strident in his criticism of the Vodacom deal. And he's now been joined by the Communications Workers Union, which is shouting the odds about alleged corruption at Telkom.
The reason is very simple: it's politics, and specifically, it's the Congress of the People (COPE). It's about the money that's going to what the SACP calls "the Shikota gang". Its members include former presidential spokesman Smuts Ngonyama, whose Elephant Consortium holds 6,5% of Telkom, as well as communications director-general Lyndall Shope-Mafole, who has enraged the African National Congress (ANC) and its allies by joining COPE but staying in her job.
The Elephant Consortium's Telkom deal was controversial at the time it was done but nothing then was heard from the ANC or its allies. Nor have any noises been made about other questionable deals in the telecommunications or other industries. It's just this one, this party, and in particular this money.
The pity is that there have been other deals involving public assets that have benefited politicians or public servants, where the party and unions certainly should have cast a critical eye, but didn't. So why take them seriously this time?
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