Moonlighting Mpofu

Official South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) regulations prevent employees from pursuing private business interests without the prior written permission of group CEO Dali Mpofu. Yet the Mail & Guardian has established that Mpofu is himself a director of no fewer than nine private companies outside the public broadcaster.

Mpofu this week admitted that his business interests are not restricted to the SABC, but told the M&G he had declared this to the SABC ”shortly after commencing employment”.

The M&G sent follow-up questions to him on Wednesday, asking for more details of his declaration, but these had not been answered by Thursday afternoon. According to his personal assistant, Mpofu was in Port Elizabeth.

In addition to being on the boards of the SABC and two subsidiaries, the SABC Foundation and Air Time TV Outside Broadcasts, the records of the registrar of companies show Mpofu is a director of Deutsche Securities, Deutsche Securities (SA), Deutsche Holdings (SA), African Crest Resources, Melisitshaba Mining, Uthajiri Investments Holdings, Uthajiri Financial Services, Uthajiri ICT Investments and Uthajiri Advisory Services. He is also the chairperson of Boxing South Africa.

Mpofu told the M&G that African Crest Resources was owned by ‘other persons … with no shareholding, and in which I am no longer a director, having resigned some time ago”.

The registrar’s records, updated on July 15 this year, however, still reflect his status as ‘active”. His co-directors in African Crest Resources are Zolile Magugu, Lancelord Luthuli and Pumla Luhabe-Magugu.

In a prospectus of mining company Eland Platinum, Mpofu is listed as a director of African Crest Resources, which indirectly holds shares in Eland Platinum. African Crest Resources holds its shares through Crest Platinum Mining, which owns 12,37% of Cream Magenta, a shareholder in Eland.

The other eight companies, Mpofu said, ‘are legal entities in one single complex structure which makes up the widely publicised BEE transaction with Deutsche Bank in which I led the BEE consortium called Uthajiri”.

Melisitshaba Mining, of which Mpofu and SABC legal head Mafika Sihlali are the only two active directors, owns 25,5% of Uthajiri Investments Holdings, the holding company of the Uthajiri group.

Utajiri means ‘wealth” in Swahili and was established in 2004 by Mpofu, Modise Motloba, Ajay Lulu, Xoliswa Kakana and Sihlali.

In its prospectus it lists four areas of investment it plans to penetrate: strategic investments (investment banking, asset management and insurance), advisory services (BEE advisory), procurement investments (travel, security, cleaning and administration) and strategic investments (ICT, telecommunications, niche mobile telecoms and financial sector IT solutions).

Its only major deal thus far has been the Deutsche Bank BEE transaction of early 2005 that saw it acquire a 15% stake in Deutsche Bank’s South African ­operations.

At the time Mpofu, was still employed as executive director of technologies company Altron and was also chairing the Information, Communication and Technology Charter working group. He started at the SABC on August 1 2005.

Through the deal, which was labelled ‘groundbreaking”, Utajiri would have gained access to Deutsche Bank’s global network and benefited from ‘bringing new business to the bank, deploying top managers and working on joint ventures”.

At the time, the ANC praised the transaction as a ‘decision [that] shows appreciation of the need for transformation in the financial sector and confidence that local players can add value to the business”.

Former chief country officer of Deutsche Bank SA, Martin Kingston, put the deal together. Kingston is well known for his role in assembling empowerment deals and is himself politically well connected.

He is married to Pulane Kingston, the daughter of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang and ANC treasurer general Mendi Msimang. His first wife was Tembi Tambo, daughter of Oliver and Adelaide Tambo.

At one time Mpofu was also a director of the now defunct Onetel, along with SABC board chairperson Eddie Funde and SABC3 head Pearl Mashabela.

However, their involvement with Onetel predated their association with the SABC as individuals.

Onetel was one of the applicants bidding for the second network operator’s 19% black economic empowerment stake, which was ultimately awarded to Nexus Connexion.

Mpofu is also involved in the Elephant Consortium, which secured a 6,7% stake of Telkom. He was a shareholder in the Buffalo grouping, which merged with the Lion camp to form Elephant.

Elephant also includes Sihlali, who formed part of the Lion camp and at the time of the BEE deal was a director of legal firm Sihlali Molefe ­Incorporated.

Sihlali, with Dimension Data chairperson Andile Ngcaba, Lester Peteni, Bongani Caga and television presenter Dali Tambo, held a 70% shareholding in the Lion consortium.

When the deal was first mooted in late 2004 it was pointed out that Mpofu was the chairperson of Aberdare Fibre Optic Cables, a major supplier to the second national operator. He resigned from this position at the end of 2005.

After being appointed the SABC’s CEO Mpofu told the Weekend Post that he was balancing his responsibilities at Altron and Utajiri ‘with difficulty”.

This week, he did not respond to an M&G question about how much time he currently spends on outside work.