antitrust.co.za - Knell of death sounds for Telkom CEO

Papi Molotsane is gone, and most of the serious commentators speculate that he was pushed by government (who, by the way, control 6/10 seats on Telkom's board). In the week before Molotsane's sudden and immediate departure, Telkom had twice come under fire from government (indeed it was all a bit like the pot calling the kettle black, we think).

First Mbeki was steered by a British journalist into admitting that Telkom was 'profiteering'.

Second, ITWeb reported that the Director-General of Communications, Lyndall Shope-Mafole, was saying nasty things about Telkom because they had entered an undersea cable agreement, the terms of which were against government's wishes.

Now Molotsane's short reign of 18 months has ended. For consumers, the good thing about Papi's arrival at Telkom was, of course, Sizwe Nxasana's departure. Reflecting on Papi's time at the helm, a few things stick out for me:

*Papi supposedly firing 3 senior Telkom execs (cheers Pinky!)
*Seeing Papi being 'ordered' by the chairperson not to speak in reply to a question I had put to him
*Papi telling me that he had "never failed at anything, and won't fail at this" (his new job)
*The November 2005 ADSL price increases
*Following a report in Business Day about Telkom's still elusive shareholder's registry, Telkom issuing reassuring words in a SENS announcement (sore point, Telkom?)
*Telkom dropping the case against Hellkom, paying costs of all parties (this after Hellkom applied for a court date)
*Telkom dancing around the government's wimpy requests for the SAT-3 shareholder's agreement
*Papi saying that he "doesn't get this issue around Telkom's prices"
*Papi not providing a representative to the MyADSL|MyBroadband forums, despite promises
*The ADSL price decreases, followed closely by the "Chinese Maths" comments from Steve Hayward
*Growing investor dis-ease with Papi (what, R30billion of our money?)

Well Mr Molotsane, thanks for playing, but you've been voted the weakest link. I bet your 210 days in solitary confinement were nothing compared to your 18 months at Telkom.