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Johannesburg - Telkom is well advanced with plans to transfer 19 000 of its 20 000 employees to companies that will be taking over its activities.
This follows months of speculation that Telkom's fixed-line assets, Telkom Media and its interest in Vodacom were up for sale.
Most of the employees will work for the company that will be taking over Telkom's activities and with which Telkom's management is currently conducting negotiations.
According to Sake24's source, negotiations are being conducted with infrastructure suppliers, especially Nokia Siemens Network, Ericsson and Alcatel. These players may be interested in Telkom's fixed-line assets.
British telecoms giant Vodafone has often indicated it would be eager to increase its interest in Vodacom. Vodafone and Telkom each own 50% of Vodacom.
Telkom Media
Telkom in fact said in April that it would like to "substantially" reduce its investment in pay-TV licence holder Telkom Media to the "smallest possible" level.
In secret sessions held with union representatives over the past months, Telkom's management said that the fast-changing demands of the telecommunications market had made the changes unavoidable.
The union representatives of the three unions, the SA Communications Union (Sacu), the Cosatu-affiliated Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Solidarity, have even accompanied Telkom officials on visits to Germany, Brazil and Australia to study similar outsourcing processes.
According to the document, Telkom wants to take these drastic measures because its business model is outdated on account of advancements in technology, greater customer demands and expectations, an entirely different regulatory environment and convergence trends that completely blur the old distinctions between business sectors and traditional markets.
The move will result in the most far-reaching restructuring of a state-owned corporation in the history of the country.
Trade unions
One of the unions, Sacu, sent a Telkom memorandum about the process to all its members, together with comments by the trade union representatives.
Sake24 has seen a copy of this document.
Telkom's profit margin in terms of Ebitda (earnings before income, tax, depreciation and amortisation) has decreased as a result and will show sharp declines in the next few years.
Telkom was hoping to have progressed so far with the process by August that it could be submitted to the board for final approval. The trade unions have requested more time.
On Monday, trade union Solidarity decided to launch a comprehensive investigation into the planned restructuring and has placed strict conditions on Telkom before agreeing to the outsourcing of its members.
The trade unions have appointed an investigation team with telecoms experts to scrutinise all aspects of the plan. The findings will be submitted to all its members as well as to the regulator, Icasa.
- Sake24