Telcos top for empowerment, gender equality

Johannesburg, 30 Apr 2004

SA telcos MTN and Telkom have been named among the top companies for empowerment and gender transformation issues.

The MTN Group was named by the SA Women in Corporate Leadership Census 2004 as being the only company listed on the JSE Securities Exchange to have over 25% of its directorships held by women.

The census is conducted locally by the Businesswomen`s Association and EmpowerDEX and attempts to obtain an accurate and complete picture of women in key corporate governance positions for large South African organisations.

Companies are adjudged to be among the top performing businesses if they have 25% or more woman directors and female executive managers.

According to MTN, the company has three women directors - non-executive director Sindi Mabaso, and executive directors Irene Charnley and Santie Botha.

The organisation also says that Charnley and Mabaso were ranked third and fifth respectively in an EmpowerDEX survey aimed at naming the 'Ten Most Influential Black Female Directors`.

Telkom, meanwhile, emerged as SA`s most empowered company in the Financial Mail`s first-ever Top Empowerment Companies (TEC) survey, also conducted in conjunction with EmpowerDEX.

The TEC 2004 is based on research of all companies listed on the Johannesburg Securities Exchange, with each company given an estimated empowerment score based on the Department of Trade and Industry`s Balanced Empowerment Scorecard.

The scorecard uses seven different factors to calculate a final score, namely ownership, management, employment equity, skills development, affirmative procurement, enterprise development and social development.

According to Caroline Southey, FM editor, Telkom achieved its top ranking "with a strong showing in all seven empowerment factors, earning it a final score of 69,78 out of a maximum of 100".

Meanwhile, MTN`s mobile rival Vodacom has announced that a month before it celebrates its 10^th anniversary, it has reached the mark of 10 million customers.

The company also claims that in the past decade, it has built up in excess of 5 000 base stations, providing coverage to more than 95% of the population, and it has deployed 25 000 active community service telephones in underdeveloped areas, run by some 1 800 entrepreneurs, recording 80-million call minutes a month.