The Telkom board says its court application to block a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) probe into its historic transactions does not mean it tolerates corruption.
On Wednesday, the chairperson of the Telkom board, Sello Moloko, said the legal action it launched in July seeks to determine whether the SIU is empowered to conduct the investigation.
The probe proclaimed by President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier this year would focus on possible maladministration in the disposal of iWayAfrica and Africa Online Mauritius, and Multi-Links Telecommunications, and any losses suffered by Telkom or the state which owns 40.5% in Telkom.
In an affidavit filed in July at the North Gauteng High Court, Telkom says Ramaphosa acted “unconstitutionally” by sanctioning the probe. Telkom is seeking an interdict against the probe pending the hearing of arguments seeking to declare the investigation unconstitutional and invalid.
“The stance that the board has taken in challenging SIU matter does not say we do not want to be investigated or we do not want to account for any acts of corruption,” said Moloko at the company Annual General Meeting.
“It is a principle issue, not something that signals that the board tolerates corruption.”
He said the challenge seeks to establish whether the SIU has jurisdiction over the company, and that the board has considered the likely precedent that the proclamation would set and opted to protect itself.
“Once the jurisdiction matter is clarified, they can come in, and we will cooperate.”
In the founding affidavit, Telkom stated that “the president acted without ground[s], irrationally, arbitrarily and for purposes not authorised by the SIU act” by ordering an investigation into “vague allegations, formulated and cast in the widest possible terms, covering a period of some 15 years.”
Moloko further stated that Telkom has had “meaningful engagements” with the SIU as the parties head towards a potential court date.
In March 2007, Telkom bought a 75% stake in Nigeria’s Multi-links Telecommunications for R9.8 billion, its first venture outside the country. The company in 2009 then bought the remaining 25% of Multi-links.
Telkom has been accused of overpaying in the transaction, with KPMG putting the valuation of the remaining 25% stake of the business at $44 million. Telkom, meanwhile, forked out $130 million for it.
In 2010, Telkom wrote off nearly R5.2 billion in the Nigerian entity before it was sold off in 2011.
Source: News 24