Johannesburg – Telkom will tap an insider to fill the big shoes of outgoing group chief executive Sipho Maseko, who last week announced he will vacate the position at the end of June next year, closing a successful chapter for the once-struggling business.
Sunday World has it on good authority that Serame Taukobong, the force behind Telkom Mobile’s revival, is the leading contender to take over the hot Telkom seat.
Taukobong joined Telkom in 2018 as the CEO of consumer business, which oversees the group’s mobile business.
Telkom’s mobile business is now the third-largest mobile business in South Africa with more than 15-million customers, generating more than R15-billion in revenues.
Taukobong has extensive experience in the mobile telecoms market, having spent 12 years at MTN.
He held numerous leadership roles within MTN, including the CEO of MTN Ghana, CMO of MTN South Africa, and COO of MTN Uganda.
Telkom, which is chaired by seasoned director Sello Moloko, in a statement last week said that “the process to appoint a successor is well underway and a group CEO-designate will be announced in the not-too-distant future”.
A source with intimate knowledge of the process, said Taukobong enjoyed the support of the board and fellow executives.
“People love his foresight and deep knowledge of the telecoms sector.” Taukobong is also said to enjoy support from the governing party. The state owns about 40% of the entity. Ofentse Dazela, a director for pricing research at Africa Analysis, said Taukobong would be the right internal pick for Telkom.
“Taukobong is a well-accomplished executive within Telkom’s top management structure with an impressive telecom acumen,” he said.
“Under Taukobong stewardship, Telkom’s retail division remains a key revenue driver for the group, and seemingly succeeding in its customer acquisition strategy. This division remains at the forefront of new innovative solution in the local market.” Dazela added that the new Telkom CEO would have to ramp up the roll-out of 5G services and that this was one of the areas that should become a priority for Taukobong.
“Other mobile network operators such as MTN, Rain and Vodacom are far ahead in terms of 5G rollout activities by comparison. This could be an area where Telkom is compromised in the future if it fails to seriously chase the front runners.”
Taukobong will have big shoes to fill. Maseko presided over a successful turnaround strategy of the group following his appointment in 2013.
When Maseko took the helm eight years ago, the company was struggling with record losses. Now, the phone operator is back in profit and has a healthy market capitalisation of R22-billion.
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