Still on the right lines

It’s never a particularly good sign when a company sticks its results out, and investors take a day or two of head scratching to come up with their opinions before offloading as if they’ve smelt a rather sizeable rat.

In Telkom’s case the headline numbers looked respectable, but by the time the spreadsheet jockeys had worked their way down to the cash flow and capex numbers, the alarm bells were ringing and the more timid among them were advising their clients to run for the hills.

However, the important thing about Telkom is to remember its history as a plodding parastatal of quite astonishing mediocrity, and to applaud how far it has progressed with a healthy dose of private-sector input. It could very easily have gone the way of Eskom, SA Airways and so many others — a rest home for politically connected incompetents who quite clearly lack the ability to manage their way out of a paper bag — and another in the long list of troughs that feed the endemic culture of corruption.

Instead of constantly approaching treasury with the begging bowl out, Telkom is a tidy contributor to the fiscus. It has a capable and motivated management team, a well-defined and appropriate strategic plan, and a level of corporate governance that would have many a parastatal employee fleeing in abject terror.

With its increased investment in fibre and mobile, it is concentrating its firepower on areas that show real growth potential. Its focus on customer service is also a long way from the old Telkom experience. It’s been quite a turnaround. x

A casting director searching for four horsemen to lead the charge wouldn’t have to look much further than Saxonwold and Pretoria