Board shake-up at Telkom

Less than a year after joining Telkom’s board, former Openserve CEO Alphonzo Samuels has resigned as a non-executive director.

Telkom disclosed in a statement to shareholders that the Telkom veteran, who retired from the group in 2019, has given up his directorship “for personal reasons”.

At the same time, the company has appointed Olufunke Ighodaro and Ethel Matenge-Sebesho as independent non-executive directors with immediate effect.

“Ighodaro is a commercially astute and experienced business leader who has served on the boards of several private and publicly listed companies, bringing diverse and extensive leadership experience and expertise in a large number of business disciplines, but specifically in finance, business strategy, governance and risk management,” Telkom said.

She is a former chief financial officer of Tiger Brands and Primedia. She was also an executive director of Barloworld and of 9mobile, a mobile operator in Nigeria. She founded and led the private equity business of Kagiso Trust Investment Group and is currently a non-executive director of Massmart, Old Mutual and Old Mutual Life Assurance, Ascential, and Sabvest Capital. She has also previously served on the Datatec and Transaction Capital boards.

Experienced

Matenge-Sebesho is an experienced board director with more than 40 years’ experience leading organisations, specifically within the housing and banking industries, Telkom said.

“She has succeeded in establishing business operations in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Ghana, Botswana, Namibia and Nigeria. By establishing business in all these countries, Ethel has extensive and useful contacts and networks abroad and in most African countries,” it added.

“She held various positions within Standard Chartered Bank and was responsible for management of the bank’s personal banking and marketing activities, as well as the restructuring of all the bank’s departments and implementation of new processes.”

She sits on the FNB advisory board and on the boards of Distell, Ashburton Investments and Sinmark Trust. She was previously a non-executive director of FirstRand and Capevin Holdings. – © 2021 NewsCentral Media