Telkom has dismissed its chief operating officer, Motlatsi Nzeku, and accused him of vigorously opposing its new strategy and defaming the company.
In a strongly worded statement today, Telkom also accuses Nzeku of not delivering on his portfolio, as the company still faces severe service delivery challenges.
Late last year, Telkom announced a new strategic direction for the company and this included the changing of roles and functions of its chief officers, with whom it held negotiations.
The Telkom statement today says Nzeku was strongly opposed to this “...to the point where his role had become extremely divisive and counter-productive to the progressive functioning of Telkom”.
The statement goes onto say: “There are also tangible indications that recent actions by Nzeku have resulted in reputational damage amounting to defamation of the company and its leadership.”
Bad mouthing
Nzeku was previously Telkom's chief information officer and before that chief of procurement. As chief operating officer, he was responsible for service delivery and Telkom's statement says it still faces many challenges on that front, “... a portfolio that resided directly under Nzeku's leadership”.
Investec Asset Management analyst Rob Forsythe says the statement was unusual in the strength of the wording.
“It may be that the gentleman in question was bad-mouthing Telkom to its clients. Usually, they say fairly nice things about a person leaving,” he says.
Forsythe says management differences are not unusual within a company facing strategic change, but that Telkom has faced several chief-level changes in the past five years.
“Telkom is looking at keeping a grip on its wholesale and retail sectors, plus it wants to move aggressively into the mobile market. These strategic changes will cause differences of opinion among top management. But Telkom is also on its third chief executive officer and its third chief financial officer in little under five years,” he says.
Related story:
Telkom cagey on management shuffle
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