“We’re shaking up the management of the company!”. This is what the Zimbabwean minister of ICT, Supa Mandiwanzira, told us yesterday in a phone interview over the restructuring exercise happening at NetOne.
“What is NetOne’s performance in comparison to the other operators?” he asked, “Government as a shareholder is very much aware of the performance of the other telecoms operators in the sector and that it is nothing but successful and profitable. There’s no reason why state enterprises should not be profitable”, he said explaining the drive behind the restructuring.
The minister went on to say that NetOne had relied too much on one source of income, the government, and that the current initiative would ensure the management gets innovative enough to compete and return a dividend to government.
“As government, we have now invested more money into the company and we must see results. We can’t have the same performance [after the restructuring]”
On who had initiated the restructuring exercise, the minister said it had come from the board but that the ministry was fully behind it.
The minister couldn’t be brought to say if the man who’s been at the helm of the company for more than 10 years now, Reward Kangai, would be affected. He said however that the adverts in the press were clear. The MD’s job has not been advertised along with the 24 others. Advertised jobs included Chief Technical Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Financial Officer and what seems to be all the senoir managerial positions below them.
NetOne was the first to get a mobile operator’s license in Zimbabwe but now fights neck and neck against Telecel Zimbabwe for a distant second position in subscriber market share behind the ZSE listed Econet Wireless Zimbabwe.
A recent report by POTRAZ also shows that NetOne and Telecel combined have less than 40% infrastructure while Econet has more than 60% telecoms infrastructure. Econet has also been posting massive profits in recent years, something NetOne has not managed. Figures made available to the public show losses in the millions. Ofcourse some of them not of their making.
Though shaking up the management, the minister said he was thankful to the current management for managing to keep the company afloat over the years.
The NetOne restructuring comes as another mobile operator, Telecel, faces a different kind of shake up. The company has had its license revoked and has been given 30 days too wind up business. We asked the minister to comment on this but he declined saying the matter is between Telecel and the regulator and that he would only come in if Telecel appealed the cancellation to him as per the country’s telecoms regulations. Telecel has described the cancellation as “unfair and unwarranted.”
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8 comments
Let me update my CV lol
@ Robert Ndlovu having a CV is one step forward, but for you to be given any position with no military or well connected plus huddles of unethical and unprofessional beuraucracy when this entity is virtually inslovent and and a perenial loss making with those with squint e es offering equipment upgradess of eg US$10 million then bill you for US$110 billion is just too difficult an uphill task bearing in mind managers hefty pecks and renumerations when the cashflows are all in red, pre and after tax losses and no bank willing to give them any dime just like — colliery, airzim, gmb is just asking for fresh water in the namib and kalahari deserts.
it came from the board but the ministry was fully behind it??? hmm. so who initiated this restructuring exercise?
Keep them coming, seems you are bringing these to the fore even before the local papers. Keep it up.
Supa has done one good and one bad thing in the past week. Shutting down Telecel was not in the best interest of the country and our economy but restructuring Netone that is good. Applications are going to come from both Telecel employees (Future uncertain) and Econet employees (Frustrated). This is good because at Netone jobs were offered on the basis of who you knew and not your professional skills. Many posts are occupied by people who have no idea of how the telecoms industry functions. This is one of the many reasons why Netone has always been on the back foot of other operators.
But knowing Supa and his recent misfirings, these posts are going to be given to our beloved war veterans, retired army chiefs and green bombers……Nyatsoterera unzwe kutonga
NETONE is badly managed you would wonder if the people at the top are really up to scratch or they just know somebody who once held an AK47. Unfortunately Supa I doubt he can do it. If he cannot see the repurcussions of trying to armtiwsit Telecel to cede its part to them hooligans it is quite difficult to see how he can win at Netone.
My young brother this is much ado about nothing. Supa is part of the Zanoid problem.
Political appointee and this is well above his salary grade.
He tired to get thugs vana Kasukuwere to get into Telecel via Brainworks and it failed. Vimpel must go to court and challenge the $137M fee in the first place. Gvt is a hindrance to business by asking the Operators to pay such fees in a poor country.
Econet paid just to wade off Zanoids not because they believed it was a reasonable fee.
Nothing good ever comes from ZANU PF, Supa just wants to give his friends a chance to take pieces of the cake, he ain’t worried a bit about the state of affairs at Netone!