Belinda Anderson profiles Sizwe Nxasana, the gentle, well-considered boss of this soon-to-be public telecoms utility
In his pinstriped suit and with his collected manner, Sizwe Nxasana could be mistaken for an ace merchant banker who has just closed a big deal. Rather, he is the head of Telkom, the parastatal that is preparing for South Africa’s biggest yet corporate finance transaction when it goes public. The government has said the listing is scheduled for this fiscal year (to February next year) and it has the final say in the matter.
The beast of which he is in control has been tamed to the point of being ready to throw itself open to the scrutiny of investors and bring billions to the government’s coffers. Speaking at the recent release of Telkom’s year-end results, Nxasana said he recognised there were still areas of customer service that needed attention, but Telkom is ready for listing and the new competition. But Telkom’s CEO refuses to take the credit for the transformation that has taken place at the telecoms monopoly. He acknowledges a “good, strong and supportive team that has done much to change the perceptions of Telkom”.
And he doesn’t seem perturbed that Telkom will be getting two new competitors, instead of the one that had been anticipated: “I see the changes in the telecoms policy as a stimulant for us to transform even faster.”
Nxasana and I stole 45 minutes from his busy schedule on the day the Department of Communications announced recommendations for changes to the telecommunications legislation. He says most countries liberalise by introducing competition before any public offering of the state asset. “We have that process running simultaneously,” he says.
The proposed regulatory changes have caused a stir, with apparent uncertainty knocking almost R6-billion from the market value of MTN parent M-Cell. The latest setback is the possibility suggested in Business Day recently, that 30% shareholder Thintana (which houses the Telecom Malaysia and SBC Communications stakes) could sell only one third of its stake at listing in protest against the proposed legislation. If Thintana decides to only sell a third of its holding, that is 10% of Telkom, the government can also only list the same slice of the telecommunications company half of the 20% it had planned to sell.
But the timing of the listing and any eventualities are not Nxasana’s job. He must focus on internal matters to make sure the value in Telkom is as great as it possiblyll can be. He sees taking Telkom to market as a daunting but exciting feat: “Listing a company as big as Telkom is a huge challenge.” And the only way to carry on in a more competitive environment, he says, is to improve service levels and to diversify the offerings available to customers:
Nxasana says the media’s negativity towards the listing of the company’s shares on the JSE Securities Exchange doesn’t surprise him. He’s not taking the criticism personally and recognises the need to foster a good relationship with the media: “We want to be open and exposed to the media. We want to be a company that is making an effort to change.”
Another area of negative press recently came in the form of an apparent scandal involving deputy chief operating officer Bheki Langa. Telkom confirmed an investigation is under way into some of its security contracts. Nxasana says he prefers not to discuss internal staff issues, but maintains Langa resigned because he was offered a job by the Department of Minerals and Energy Affairs. “The investigation is not about Bheki per se. There is no disciplinary hearing for him,” he says.
That Nxasana ended up as a chartered accountant was purely an “accident”. He went to Fort Hare University having chosen to study marketing. But Wiseman Nkuhlu, now economic adviser to President Thabo Mbeki and then an accounting lecturer at the Eastern Cape University, was an inspiration: “He was the first African to qualify as a CA. That had a tremendous influence on me.” After graduating with an accounting degree, he did honours through Unisa and articles with a small Afrikaans firm called Gouws Strauss and Partners in his home town of Durban. He then founded the first black accounting firm in KwaZulu-Natal.
Telkom’s CV of Nxasana describes him as an “exemplary young leader of outstanding vision and exceptional courage and initiative with a solid grounding in accountancy and financial management, a strong entrepreneurial spirit, the ability to inspire and build focused teams and a keen sense of good corporate governance”.
Apart from a supportive family with whom he likes to spend as much time as possible, Nxasana takes his mind off Telkom by gardening and refurbishing his home. “I think deep down I’m a frustrated architect,” he says.
Nxasana also spends as much time as possible reading. “But not fiction,” he says, preferring factual material such as magazines and business journals and some autobiographies. “I tend to read mainly about telecoms” and not just to keep abreast of the rapidly changing environment, he says. “I’m very interested in the sector.”