Telkom’s Nzeku looms again
MOTLATSI Nzeku, the “divisive” former chief operating officer of Telkom and later MD of Telkom International who was last year paid R13-million to go away, is on his way back to local telecoms.
He might not be returning to the mothership itself, but it emerged this week that he has had meetings with Telkom CEO Sipho Maseko, which insiders say are ominous.
This week, Nzeku told Business Times he “had a meeting with Maseko” although it was “not about coming back to Telkom”.
Asked if the conversation was informal, he replied: “We are not friends.”
Nzeku’s response suggests that either the meeting was about possible business dealings between him and Telkom, or that he may be reappointed at a company whose shareholders paid many millions to see the back of him.
But Maseko said this wasn’t the case. “I know him socially, and in a loose way at that.”
Maseko was adamant that Telkom did not offer Nzeku a job.
“I haven’t met him since I joined Telkom seven months ago. And before I joined Telkom, I must have met him at most three or four times.”
But internal memos leaked to Business Times by two Telkom employees indicate that formal talks between Maseko and Nzeku were taking place.
Maseko was warned repeatedly against having anything to do with Nzeku. One executive stated emphatically that “it would be intolerable for Telkom to have dealings with this person in any shape or form”.
Speculation in the company was that Nzeku was being groomed to return to Telkom.
After last month’s spectacular public relations disaster in which Telkom’s wellregarded CFO Jacques Schindehütte was suspended for an as-yetunnamed infraction, it is no surprise Maseko wants to put a lid on any other contentious issues regarding the company’s leadership.
Engaging with Nzeku would be about as contentious as it gets.
In 2009, the then CEO Reuben September fired Nzeku for being “extremely divisive and counterproductive to the progressive functioning of Telkom”.
Things were clearly poisonous at management level.
Earlier that year, Nzeku had presented a dossier to the board, alleging that September had taken a kickback from Ericsson to give it a multimillion-rand tender to supply a “microwave” satellite equipment. The news was leaked to the media.
Telkom vehemently denied rumours, and he was exonerated.
Later, a restructuring at the company meant Nzeku was going to be out of a job or at least demoted.
He objected strenuously to this, and was called to a disciplinary hearing,
Before I joined, I must have met him at most three times
the details of which he leaked to the Sunday Times.
Nzeku said at the time he had done this for “self-defence purposes”.
But even without Nzeku there, the rot at the executive was malignant.
September stepped down the next year, several months earlier than he had planned because his resignation letter to the board — slamming chairman Jeff Molobela for breaking governance rules and creating a “sub-optimal” board of directors — had been leaked to the newspaper.
But Telkom was also haemorrhaging money at the time — its earnings fell 92% due largely to the R5.2billion it was forced to impair on its Nigerian arm, Multi-Links.
Former CEO Pinky Moholi paid Nzeku R13million to go away.