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20
July 2001 |
There is little news around that can alter the gloomy outlook for both IT and telecommunications shares. Despite this, people are still largely assuming that the Telkom initial public offering (IPO) will go ahead by the end of the year.
Is this a realistic expectation? In one sense, the government is virtually pledged to go ahead with the listing. It has set itself an ambitious programme of retiring about R7.4 billion in debt in the fiscal year that ends next March, and raising R18 billion in privatisati... |
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20
July 2001 |
South Africa's Telkom said on Friday its deputy chief operating officer Bheki Langa had resigned, after the phone utility launched an investigation into allegations of mismanagement.
Telkom said the probe was launched "some months ago" and it had accepted the executive's resignation with immediate effect.
"In view of his resignation, the company will not proceed with a disciplinary enquiry. However, the investigation will be concluded."
The statement from the state-controlled group came after the w... |
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18
July 2001 |
SOUTH Africa plans to license two rivals to state-controlled fixed-line monopoly Telkom from next May, the Business Day reported on Wednesday. The newspaper said the final telecoms policy directives, due out next week, were "understood to call for both a second and third national operator to enter the market in May". If approved by Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri the move would be a sharp departure from draft plans to introduce only one rival initially, and another within five years. The paper... |
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18
July 2001 |
Johannesburg - South Africa plans to licence two rivals to state-controlled fixed-line monopoly Telkom from next May, the Business Day reported on Wednesday.
The newspaper said the final telecoms policy directives, due out next week, were "understood to call for both a second and third national operator to enter the market in May".
If approved by Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, the move would be a sharp departure from draft plans to introduce only one rival initially, and another within... |
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18
July 2001 |
Speculation on possible changes in government's approach to telecoms liberalisation has started early after being galvanised by a report that more than one competitor to Telkom may be on the cards.
Business Day reported today that the draft policy currently before communications minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri may call for the licensing of two, not one, new fixed-line telecommunications providers. The paper cites no sources for the information.
The Department of Communications and the Communications Mi... |
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18
July 2001 |
South Africa plans to license two rivals to state-controlled fixed-line monopoly Telkom from next May, the Business Day reported on Wednesday.
The newspaper said the final telecoms policy directives, due out next week, were "understood to call for both a second and third national operator to enter the market in May".
If approved by Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri the move would be a sharp departure from draft plans to introduce only one rival initially, and another within five years.
... |
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16
July 2001 |
Sourcecom Technology Solutions, the information technology solutions provider, has welcomed an investigation by Telkom into companies using black partners to "front" for them in obtaining business contracts.
Johan Koornhof, the chief executive of Sourcecom, said at the company's e-business launch on Friday that Telkom's move provided the company with an incentive to grow empowerment.
Sourcecom, formed in 1996, is a 59 percent black-owned firm, where more than 65 percent of its technical staff are blac... |
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15
July 2001 |
Telkom had cancelled deals worth nearly R1 billion with major companies last year after forensic audits revealed these companies misrepresented the levels of black economic empowerment in their operations to clinch contracts, the parastatal said this week.
Nomalanga Langa, Telkom’s communications manager, said seven companies had lost contracts during the 2000/01 financial year, six of them for fronting and one because the level of black participation had dropped below the required 51 percent.
But ins... |
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13
July 2001 |
South Africa looks poised to bow to concern about its delayed telecoms policy proposals by including more suggestions from industry, labour and foreign players into the final plans to open the sector to competition.
"The policy directives that will be coming out may encompass a wide range of issues that weren't in the original draft," Robert Nkuna, spokesman for Communications Minister Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri, told Reuters on Friday. He gave no details.
Until Friday, the government had indicated that th... |
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12
July 2001 |
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) said yesterday that Telkom's possible NYSE listing was "a very important privatisation transaction that showed South Africa was opening up to the world and should be well received by the market".
Georges Ugeux, NYSE's group executive vice-president for international research, said from New York yesterday: "We are really looking forward to doing for Telkom and South Africa what we've been doing for many other developing countries around the world."
Yesterday the depar... |
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12
July 2001 |
Telkom yesterday launched the first of 1 000 community public telephone outlets it expects to have established countrywide by March next year. The event took place in Daveyton, east of Johannesburg.
The businesses are housed in modified, retired shipping containers. Each of these containers, costing R29 000, can house four to eight coin-operated phones and two card-operated units. They will have fax and photocopier facilities and sell phone cards.
The rollout of these lockable containers is targeted a... |
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11
July 2001 |
South Africa's government said on Wednesday that an initial public offering of phone utility Telkom was set to take place in November 2001, subject to market conditions.
A short statement issued by Treasury Director General Maria Ramos and Public Enterprises Director General Sivi Gounden was apparently aimed at putting to rest fears of a substantial delay in the country's biggest privatisation effort so far.
"The two Director Generals have also noted that good progress has been made on both the legisl... |
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10
July 2001 |
Cell C yesterday announced that it had signed a roaming agreement with Vodacom after nearly four months of negotiations with both Vodacom and MTN.
“In the final analysis, Vodacom offered us superior terms which matched our business plan requirements,” said Cell C CEO Talaat Laham.
Financial details and the formula for calculating fees were not disclosed, with Vodacom saying only that it was a complicated agreement from which it expected to profit directly.
The deal is to run the full 15 years of th... |
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10
July 2001 |
Cell C, the third cellular phone operator, will be able to provide customers with national coverage from the first day it switches on its network after sealing a roaming agreement with incumbent Vodacom.
Alan Knott-Craig, the chief executive of Vodacom, said yesterday that the 15-year roaming agreement would contribute towards improving Vodacom's revenue streams.
The agreement is based on a complex fee structure that cannot be immediately quantified, but puts Cell C on a relatively level playing field... |
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8
July 2001 |
Empowerment deals worth more than R3 billion could be ditched if a Telkom audit finds that white-owned companies have been using black partners as a front.
The telecommunications utility warned last week that it would investigate the black economic empowerment credentials of hundreds of white-owned companies, including multinationals, with which deals had been concluded.
Khosi Ndlovu, Telkom’s empowerment executive, said: “We are going to investigate the authenticity of the black economic empowerment ... |
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