Johannesburg, 03 Apr 2009
Telkom's chief of global operations, Thami Msimango, will act as head of the company's newly-established SA business unit until early May.
The company last week announced it appointed Nombulelo “Pinky” Moholi as Telkom SA's new MD. However, she is required to work out her contract with Nedbank and will only take up the position next month.
Moholi says she is raring to go and seems to have a long road ahead of her in the new position at the telecoms company. “Telkom has many strengths and I am planning on building on those. There are also weaknesses, which I will be turning around.”
The ICT veteran left Telkom under difficult circumstances in 2005, when she headed up sales and marketing. She was widely respected within and outside Telkom as an executive and was earmarked to replace Sizwe Nxasana as CEO.
Nedbank appointed her as a member of its turnaround team at a time when the financial giant was having its own difficulties. “I will have a similar task at Telkom as I did at Nedbank. Trust needs to be rebuilt and the negativity about management changed. It is easy to destroy trust, but hard to build it back up. It's going to be a good challenge,” she says.
Moholi plans on changing the business focus from inward looking to a customer-centric culture. Since the company implemented its new structure at the beginning of this month, it has appointed Msimango to hold the fort.
He will also act as the MD of the second of three business units, known as Telkom International. Telkom Group CEO Reuben September says: “Refocusing the Telkom Group represents a positive, purposeful change towards a more accountable and competitive company. This change is a necessary part of Telkom's strategy to maintain and grow its market share in SA, while building a strong footprint on the African continent.”
September says Telkom's new organisational structure was designed to support the Group's strategic focus and vision. “A heightened customer focus is core to our strategy going forward, while growth in the area of mobile capability and shareholder value creation are other key focal areas.”
Telkom's third business unit, Telkom data centre operations, is still leaderless. However, September says an appointment will be made soon.
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