Johannesburg, 13 Dec 2002
Trade union group Solidarity, which has a large number of Telkom employees among its 128 000 members, will bring an urgent application before the High Court in January to force the government to abandon its racial prescriptions for the sale of Telkom shares.
With the launch of the publicity campaign for the share offer last week, Solidarity, which had earlier threatened legal action, decided to proceed with the application.
The organisation`s decision follows consultation with senior legal experts during the past week, which it says confirmed the unconstitutionality of giving preference to a certain group purely on grounds of race to buy shares at a reduced price.
Should Solidarity`s application be granted by the High Court, Telkom`s planned listing next year on the JSE Securities Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange could be further delayed.
Solidarity spokesman Kallie Kriel says the trade union hopes the government will urgently revise its use of racial prescriptions and instead use level of income as a measure for the offer of cheaper shares.
Kriel emphasised Solidarity`s support for the elimination of inequalities and poverty. However, he says the stipulation that a certain racial group should get preference on grounds of race will not contribute towards the termination of inequalities, but rather cause new inequalities.
"Will selling shares to black people at a discount promote equality? No. What you`ll have is black millionaires buying shares cheaply and profiting, while people from another race group, even if they are jobless, will not benefit. Meanwhile the poorest of the poor in the black community will not be able to afford shares anyway."
Kriel says that should the share option offer preference to everybody with a monthly income of, say, less than R5 000 or those with no income at all, it would help to remove inequalities. Poor people from all communities would benefit, and not only the new black elite, he says.
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