The 128 000 member Solidarity trade union has asked the US government and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) to ban the listing of telecommunications utility Telkom on the NYSE.
Telkom is scheduled to list on the JSE Securities Exchange South Africa (JSE) and the NYSE in the first quarter of 2003.
Solidarity said in a statement on Tuesday that it had made the request due to the South African government’s decision to “favour black people above whites on basis of their skin colour with the purchase of Telkom shares at a discount”.
The union on Tuesday presented a memorandum to senior staff of the US Embassy in Pretoria and also sent a memorandum to the chairperson of the NYSE, Dick Grasso.
Solidarity is taking issue with the Khulisa Offer, part of Telkom’s initial public offering (IPO). All South Africans are allowed to apply for Telkom shares under the general offer, while the Khulisa Offer is open to all individuals and stokvels.
“The Khulisa offer is designed to benefit lower income individuals. Preferential allocation will however be given to historically disadvantaged individuals (HDIs) and stokvels whose members are all HDIs,” according to the Telkom share offer website.
Solidarity representative Kallie Kriel said the decision to present a memorandum to the US embassy was necessitated by the South African government’s failure to observe Solidarity’s request that income level rather than race should be the criterion for offering discount shares.
He said that Solidarity would apply to the High Court to prohibit the racial prescriptions of the Khulisa Offer. – I-Net Bridge