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Moleketi appointed to Vodacom board

Nicola Mawson
By Nicola Mawson, Contributor.
Johannesburg, 23 Oct 2009

SA's former deputy minister of finance, Jabu Moleketi, is government's nomination for a seat on the Vodacom board.

A Cabinet statement earlier this week said it had approved Moleketi's appointment to the board of the cellular giant. The decision was announced after Cabinet met on Wednesday.

Moleketi has been appointed as a non-executive director for the next three years. He was deputy minister of finance under former president Thabo Mbeki, but resigned when Mbeki was ousted from government.

He was also recently re-appointed to the Fifa World Cup board, after losing the post last year when he resigned from Cabinet. Moleketi is married to former public service and administration minister Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi.

Government has the right to nominate one person to Vodacom's board. This is according to Vodacom's pre-listing statement, which states that majority shareholder Vodafone will support the appointment of one nomination from the state to the cellular company's board. This is conditional on government having a 10% stake in Vodacom.

At the end of May, the latest available information, Vodafone held 65% of the group, while government had a direct interest of 14%, and state entity Public Investment Corporation held 5.3%.

Vodafone increased its stake from 50% to 65% by buying and additional 15% stake of Vodacom from Telkom, when the cellular company was unbundled and listed on the JSE in May.

Cabinet also approved the appointment of Julia Hope, a former Independent Communications Authority of SA councillor, who was appointed as non-executive director to Telkom's board for three years.

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