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EPTC MD PETROS MANAGERS’ RESHUFFLE QUESTIONED

23/12/2018 06:28:00 BY SIBUSISO SHANGE

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MBABANE – It appears EPTC Managing Director Petros Dlamini overstepped his powers when he implemented a major reorganisation of the senior management structure.

Members of the Eswatini Posts and Telecommunications Corporation’s Board of Directors, as well as the Ministry of Information Communication and Technology, now want Dlamini to explain how the reshuffle came about.
A member of the Board, who spoke to this publication, said it was unheard of for a managing director of a public enterprise to unilaterally implement a restructuring of the organisation’s top management.

The member said the Board currently does not hold meetings because its Chairperson, Dr. Thambo Gina, was appointed Minister of Economic Planning and Development and therefore had to relinquish the position.
Also, another Board member, Leckinah Magagula, has had to step down following her election into Senate.
“Who then did the managing director talk to or consult before making the changes. This is the prerogative of the Board. What has happened is just illegal and should be nullified,” said the Board member.
Gina, when contacted, said under normal circumstances, all major appointments and reshuffles should go through the Board.

“There is nothing about this reshuffle that was brought to the attention of the Board during my time as chairperson. Maybe there is a new Board, I am not aware of in this transitional period,” Gina said.
He confirmed that he was no longer a part of the Board following his election into Parliament and subsequent appointment as Cabinet minister.
The Board member, who spoke to this publication, said they were called by Dr. Gina as soon as the Times SUNDAY ran an article last week about the reshuffle.

discuss the reshuffle

“He asked that there should be a meeting to discuss the reshuffle that we had seen for the first time in the newspaper.
He had proposed that the meeting be scheduled either on Wednesday or Thursday, but it couldn’t materialise because the corporation’s management was not available,” the member said.
According to the King IV report on Corporate Governance in South Africa, one of the responsibilities of the Board chairperson is to identify and participate in selecting Board members (via a nomination committee), and overseeing a formal succession plan for the Board, CEO and certain senior management appointments such as the chief financial officer (CFO).

Meanwhile, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) Maxwell Masuku said he also got to know about the reshuffle last week through this publication.
“We have engaged the corporation’s management to find out if this is true and we will take it from there. Yes, such changes have to go through the Board and we will find out how it happened,” the PS said.
He admitted that the board was currently crippled because of the two members who have assumed political positions.

people TO replace the two

“We are in the process of finding the people who will replace the two, but this is a long process because it involves vetting the candidates. But we will soon have them replaced,” the PS said. He did not want to pre-empt what was likely to happen regarding the management reshuffle but prefered to wait for the EPTC management to present their case to the ministry.
“We will then have to take the matter to the minister for further action,” Masuku said.

EPTC’s MD could not be reached for comment and Nqobile Magagula, the corporation’s Corporate Affairs Manager, said she also could not get hold of him since Thursday.
“I have sent him a message regarding what you are asking about and I will get back to you as soon as he responds,” Magagula said on Thursday. However, by yesterday, she said the MD had still not responded.
When efforts were made to call him yesterday, his mobile phone was not available on the Swazi MTN network. As reported last week, EPTC – a Category A public enterprise, has reshuffled three senior managers as it engages on an unbundling process that has seen the registration of two subsidiary companies,

Francis Dlamini, the General Manager of Eswatini Telecom, has been moved to the position of General Manager Infrastructure and Projects.
The Infrastructure and Projects is a newly-established division of the corporation that has seen the merging of the two that were previously separate from each other.

GM POSITION

Taking over the position of GM Eswatini Telecom is Amon Dlamini, who has been occupying the post of GM Corporate Strategy.
Amon is a former Acting Managing Director of the corporation. The third senior manager to be affected by the reshuffle is Vusi Magagula, who has been appointed GM Information Technology and Strategy. He previously held the position of GM IT and his new position is also viewed as a career development opportunity following the merging of the IT division with that of Strategy. The corporation’s Corporate Communications Manager, Nqobile Magagula, confirmed the reshuffle and affirmed that Dlamini (Francis) had actually been given a crucial position which comes with three times added responsibility compared to his previous position.

“You remember, now that we have the different units registered as subsidiary companies under EPTC, there needed to be a re-alignment in executive is that they are now placed in portfolios that will drive the business,” Magagula said. She further stated: “Our strategy is driving business into a profitable and sustainable stream. Some divisions have been merged for better efficiency and some have been solidified for better performance.”

The country’s telecommunications industry is now a competitive sector following the granting of a mobile telecommunications licence to Eswatini Mobile, something that brought to an end the monopoly that was enjoyed by MTN Eswatini. EPTC has also been given a similar licence and is in the process of operating its own mobile telephony network hence the much-anticipated unbundling process.