South Africa P.I.G.: TELKOM

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Fat-cat parastatal bosses come and go, but they get the cream

Seven of the top-10-earning executives at SA's parastatals have either left or are leaving. And a number of them left under a cloud. Moreover, eight of the top-paid heads of parastatals would have ranked among SA's 150 biggest earners in private companies. <img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5547320646424532418" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc9HPqtBDJ54Ow53tM-ev4HUYvI47-xmukVm7r5sRWXwGBxGKRwsD8vW2uAzzTVebJ1Wku4bmU8C1sFeF4M3zaJJOg4D_Q_2mi1UeGdUXg5Cg2ORWd02d9Mb8nAiXP6q2hOLoNaW5OItjm/s400/corruption-theft.jpg" style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 360px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 305px; CURSOR: hand" />Research into parastatal pay, carried out by Who Owns Whom, is done on a selected number of parastatals, so it does not capture the pay of all directors of state-owned entities. Pay at entities such as Eskom, SAA, Denel, and the SABC should be seen in the context of regular news about failure, controversy and financial bail-outs. Khaya Ngqula, the former head of SAA, tops the rankings, having earned R13.7-million in 2009. This included his controversial R9.35-million "termination benefit" - the amount he was paid to go away. Behind was Geoffrey Qhena of the Industrial Development Corporation, one of the few who still has his job. Qhena earned R10.3-million last year. This included a performance bonus of almost R7-million. The IDC and Transnet were among the biggest payers, with numerous directors earning big packages. Jacob Maroga, who ranked 10th, was sacked from Eskom in late 2009 with no official golden handshake, but R9-million in previously awarded shares will be transferred to him through 2010 and up to March 2011. Universally acknowledged to have managed Eskom poorly, Maroga enjoyed a salary of more than R5-million in 2009. The court has since reserved judgment in his subsequent bid for a payout for unlawful dismissal. Maroga is suing for benefits he would have accrued into 2011 - to a total of R85-million. Eskom CEO Brian Dames faces a huge task if he is to alter the organisation's trajectory and justify the recent rate hikes and requests for funding, but the pain will be eased by his own hefty pay packet: a salary of R3.3-million, a short-term bonus of R1.22-million, another of R946000 and a payment of R230000, listed as "other". Over at poorly performing Telkom, CEO Reuben September, who has since left, pulled in a performance bonus of R1.84-million, with other benefits of R7.43-million on top of a salary of R3.6-million to rake in a total income of R12.8-million (down from a hefty R19.1-million the year before). In October 2009 new SAA board chairman Cheryl Carolus famously took action against Ngqula (the new SAA board apparently paid R20-million for a forensic report) for cash spent outside of his financial mandate that needed to be paid back, announcing a suit against Ngqula for R30.8-million, with further thinking required on how to recoup R141-million in misspent sponsorship money. SAA paid bonuses of R60.7-million to 153 managers over three years, at an average of R400000 per employee, as part of a retention scheme that Ngqula introduced. The pending court action will eat up yet more taxpayers' money. Similarly, Dali Mpofu was paid R12-million when he left the SABC, even though the broadcaster was R800-million in the red at the time. Siyabonga Gama, the CEO of Transnet freight rail, was dismissed for breach of governance requirements in respect of two procurement contracts before he could lead the running in the race to fill the position of Transnet CEO. The position has been vacant for over a year since Maria Ramos stepped down. Gama's pay for his last year was more than R4-million. Executive directors and senior managers at three parastatals - Transnet, Eskom and the IDC - were paid an average salary of R3.7-million per year for the past three financial years to the end of March. Eskom posted the worst performance of the three, but its directors were the most highly paid. In all, Transnet's three-year wage bill amounted to R245.6-million for 23 directors and senior managers, while Eskom was estimated to have paid R139-million in the same period, an average annual remuneration of R5.8-million for eight directors and senior managers. The IDC paid its 20 directors (including those at subsidiary Foskor) and senior managers R170.6-million over the three years, at an average of R2.8-million each.

Fat-cat parastatal bosses come and go, but they get the cream

Seven of the top-10-earning executives at SA's parastatals have either left or are leaving. And a number of them left under a cloud. Mor...

12:37 PM

Southern African Large Telescope hit by broadband problems

• Astronomers forced to send findings by road • Embarrassed politicians call on telephone firm to resolve issue <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4YuLQzDnr2AhtinqphSSSfO3mAticOlc7pvkdfzYGOjVAJlkFAH3hW4ul2EpOWpixroaAaLEWVvaxMeJqrGWjhmzfx4iibCqTnLdVPcwhT9Y8ck2X1x91OODdqwedAF1HldAd0jevZDs/s1600-h/Large-Te-SA_001.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5401120167909528210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4YuLQzDnr2AhtinqphSSSfO3mAticOlc7pvkdfzYGOjVAJlkFAH3hW4ul2EpOWpixroaAaLEWVvaxMeJqrGWjhmzfx4iibCqTnLdVPcwhT9Y8ck2X1x91OODdqwedAF1HldAd0jevZDs/s400/Large-Te-SA_001.jpg" style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 400px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 240px" /></a>It can see to the edge of the observable universe. It can peer back in time to the aftermath of the Big Bang. Just don't ask it to send the secret of creation by email. The R332m (£25m) Southern African Large Telescope (Salt) is an internationally renowned science facility with everything but fast broadband. Its astronomers have found download speeds so slow that they are forced to send their cosmic findings by road. The problem is all too familiar to South African residents: painfully slow service delivery. Politicians have called on a telephone company to resolve the matter "before the country's standing as a credible international scientific partner is irreparably damaged". Salt, on a hilltop outside Sutherland in the Karoo desert, is the biggest telescope in the southern hemisphere with a 11m-wide mirror capable of detecting a candle flame on the moon. Its investors include Germany, Poland, Britain, India, New Zealand and the American Museum of National History. But while it can capture data 10bn light years away, Salt is 11 miles short of the nearest fibre optic internet cable. Five years of negotiations to make the small step for man have reportedly stalled because Telkom, the South African telecoms operator, is demanding R10m (£775,000). Dr David Buckley, astronomy operations manager at Salt, said transmitting data from a single night's observation takes 24 hours or more, whereas ideally it would be done continuously in real time. Asked if astronomers could use a website such as YouTube, Buckley replied: "Oh hell, no. We have to control what people do there. If you try things like that, it clogs the whole system. We certainly know it if people start downloading movies." Buckley and his colleagues frequently resort to putting their precious data on disk and making the 230-mile drive to the South African Astronomical Observatory where it is processed. "We bring the data ourselves in a standard minibus or car," he continued. "This is something we work with in South Africa: pathetic broadband. It's extremely frustrating because we started negotiations with Telkom in 2004 for broadband that would be efficient and affordable. They now appear to be reneging and we're back to square one." South Africa's main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, condemned the impasse. "If Telkom had installed the link from Salt when it was first approached five years ago, rather than dragging its feet, it would not be quibbling about the costs now," said Marian Shinn, deputy shadow minister of science and technology. "Salt is the pioneer project of our growing collaboration on international space research programmes. If we cannot get the data to our offshore partners on this project we can kiss our investment in space science goodbye." Shinn warned that the fiasco could jeopardise South Africa's bid to host the R1.6bn (£125m) Square Kilometre Array radio telescope. But Telkom insisted that progress was being made. A spokesman said: "The current project is progressing well and the first nodes will become operational during December 2009." In September, a pigeon called Winston beat Telkom's broadband service when he carried a 4GB memory stick from Howick to Durban in two hours – in which time the ADSL line had sent just 4% of the data.

Southern African Large Telescope hit by broadband problems

• Astronomers forced to send findings by road • Embarrassed politicians call on telephone firm to resolve issue It can see to the edge of th...

2:19 PM

Neotel grabs half of big firms from state-controlled Telkom

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCCOu8lJe3fS9fYDXyItjIdbrQuFvpq5JEAT4lHWQCAhPyRoYGVPODmoHQW4lWBk-BwcMxRdAdBH9BcrnTLDNhtqjrE4b3ddSwgh-ebhN8SSdkj2FhyphenhyphentxpBOAG7UOc5Q0PB1ipi1JFw3k/s1600-h/ivysadness.jpg"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5229663952457805106" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCCOu8lJe3fS9fYDXyItjIdbrQuFvpq5JEAT4lHWQCAhPyRoYGVPODmoHQW4lWBk-BwcMxRdAdBH9BcrnTLDNhtqjrE4b3ddSwgh-ebhN8SSdkj2FhyphenhyphentxpBOAG7UOc5Q0PB1ipi1JFw3k/s400/ivysadness.jpg" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" /></a> Bye bye Telkom:)Check <a href="http://www.marketingweb.co.za/news/marketing/333892.htm" target="OUT">Telkom’s marketing nightmare</a> enter <a href="http://www.hellkom.co.za/info.htm" target="OUT">www.hellkom.co.za</a>, with hair-raising information, links to articles about their bullying tactics and <a href="http://allafrica.com/stories/200406180614.html" target="OUT">high costs</a>. Even the <a href="http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1673309-6080-0,00.html" target="OUT">trade union Solidarity</a> supports Hellkom. And to read the <a href="http://www.mnet.co.za/CarteBlanche/Display/Display.asp?Id=2568" target="OUT">transcript of the Carte Blance</a> interview, <a href="http://www.mybroadband.co.za/news/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=228" target="OUT">click here</a>. Telkom<a href="http://privacy.4mg.com/privacy2.html#TRADE">™</a> (<a href="http://www.nyse.com/listed/tkg.html" target="OUT">NYSE:TKG</a>) hasn't found it so funny, and in <a href="http://www.marketingweb.co.za/news/marketing/340614.htm" target="OUT">typical bully-boy style</a> have threatened to sue for <a href="http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/internet/2004/0408111546.asp" target="OUT">R5 million</a>. But the lawyer from the prestigious firm of <a href="mailto:Jan@adamsadams.co.za">Adams and Adams</a> got a few of his facts wrong. I guess lawyers do that all the time - they have to say what their client says, even when they are being stupid. One of their customers complained to ICASA about the high price of ADSL. You can <a href="http://www.myadsl.co.za/ICASA.pdf" target="OUT">read the full complaint to ICASA here</a>, and their <a href="http://www.mybroadband.co.za/news/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=66">stonewalling response</a> is posted as well. Johannesburg - Neotel, the number two fixed-line operator, has signed up almost half of the country's top 350 corporate clients in contracts worth more than R1.5bn, its chief said on Friday. Neotel, controlled by India's Tata group, was launched in 2006. It started selling corporate services last year and retail services in May, aiming to muscle into a market dominated for years by state-controlled fixed-line operator Telkom. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYFTuIqqWjKDMRgoZzKygAhCbDV0fIRHMynWGY1l1YmhtTAusfR3dZeLcB5j7l1070yvqsi9feczYatIvYWQ0QexOopWhdy7MnjtX1GOYpO-7ffq7qyvRMxDI1fM1fPiJV45MIER5RyS0/s1600-h/Hellkom1.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5229659139326810322" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYFTuIqqWjKDMRgoZzKygAhCbDV0fIRHMynWGY1l1YmhtTAusfR3dZeLcB5j7l1070yvqsi9feczYatIvYWQ0QexOopWhdy7MnjtX1GOYpO-7ffq7qyvRMxDI1fM1fPiJV45MIER5RyS0/s320/Hellkom1.gif" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" /></a> Neotel competes for corporate clients with Telkom, Internet Solutions - a unit of Dimension Data - and Verizon South Africa, which is being bought by mobile phone group MTN. Neotel now have a presence (with) about 170 to 180 of the top 350 customers in South Africa. Dobek Pater, a telecoms analyst at Africa Analysis, said figures proved Neotel was a credible player. "It has taken quite a long time for Neotel to gain a comprehensive presence in the market," he said. "It has been doing fairly well since launching its corporate services." Neotel is rolling out wireless and fibre-optic networks to snatch fixed-line revenues<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg91_guQOlKeDW7Q2xHD_Jo5FDQZ-jO0Si_Oykq9Txp0oRf9KvFk3JracruMyCk-XteNwGKoyrxMlpibvyr41Yq6_qtcD_RZp2V3usqkHOtLGIzodpGwMYirK7VVUVwfaOVbLxETr8GlYQ/s1600-h/hellkom_Melkhom.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5229659142092462162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg91_guQOlKeDW7Q2xHD_Jo5FDQZ-jO0Si_Oykq9Txp0oRf9KvFk3JracruMyCk-XteNwGKoyrxMlpibvyr41Yq6_qtcD_RZp2V3usqkHOtLGIzodpGwMYirK7VVUVwfaOVbLxETr8GlYQ/s320/hellkom_Melkhom.gif" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" /></a> from Telkom. Neotel has so far invested more than R2bn in capital expenditure to roll out its network. The group would spend R11bn over the next 10 years. Neotel employs almost 900 people, compared to Telkom's nearly 25 000 workforce. Last month, India's Tata Communications announced it would buy a further 30% equity stake in Neotel from state-owned firms Eskom and Transnet. This will enable Tata Communications along with Tata Africa to <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje7f6YnvBydor83csNjK1FSY08OMOLG9iyPLig7wJ68rbmOQNVf4cJkGT3l5tUe4AE0r8pUlKIIGYe7qlzxtIAptD2OnRUHfJ4b_keswqGjgZThduJ3OLJBL6FnGGz_9rvJ7ePSskk0tY/s1600-h/hellkomdjm.gif"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5229659152959102338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje7f6YnvBydor83csNjK1FSY08OMOLG9iyPLig7wJ68rbmOQNVf4cJkGT3l5tUe4AE0r8pUlKIIGYe7qlzxtIAptD2OnRUHfJ4b_keswqGjgZThduJ3OLJBL6FnGGz_9rvJ7ePSskk0tY/s320/hellkomdjm.gif" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; CURSOR: hand" /></a>hold a 56 percent stake in Neotel. Other shareholders include Communitel, Nexus and Two Telecom Consortium. Telkom also faces competition from MTN Group, Africa's biggest mobile operator which is spending R1.4bn to build a 5 000 km fibre-optic network allowing it to offer fixed-line services in South Africa. In May, Neotel launched its first consumer product - NeoConnect Prime - and said it aimed to sign up about 60 000 customers in the next nine months.

Neotel grabs half of big firms from state-controlled Telkom

Bye bye Telkom:) Check Telkom’s marketing nightmare enter www.hellkom.co.za , with hair-raising information, links to articles about their...

1:34 PM

South Africa P.I.G.

Fat-cat parastatal bosses come and go, but they get the cream

Southern African Large Telescope hit by broadband problems

Neotel grabs half of big firms from state-controlled Telkom

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