Telkom honours Madiba Day
In honour of Nelson Mandela's 94th birthday, Telkom teamed up with Habitat for Humanity, an international NGO, to help build homes for two deserving women in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
The Telkom team, led by Group CEO Ms Nombulelo Moholi, consisted of 120 employees who rolled up their sleeves to help build the two houses in Orange Farm and Mgababa in just five days.
"There is only one Madiba," said Ms Moholi. "He inspires and sets the example. It is up to us to follow, and this is what Telkom is doing. His presence and his actions have conveyed a singular and compelling message: 'This is what it means to be human.'"
The Telkom volunteers started work on Monday, 16 July, and by Friday afternoon, were ready to hand the finished houses over to the beneficiaries.
The Orange Farm home was built for Ms Cindy Nkuna, a 20-year-old unemployed matriculant who had been living with her son and three brothers and sisters in a one-room shack.
The Mgababa house was built for Mrs Violet Ngubane - fondly known as Mama Ngubane. She is a pensioner who looks after her eight orphaned grandchildren, relying solely on a government grant for their upkeep.
Ms Moholi travelled to Mgababa to hand over the new house to Mama Ngubane.
"Mama, they may not be here, but behind me stands 21 000 Telkom employees who are as grateful as I am for what Madiba has done for South Africa, and who join me in wishing you only the very best in the years ahead," she said.
Ms Moholi explained that Telkom takes an uncomplicated view of Corporate Social Investment.
"We think of Corporate Social Investment in terms of community. The core of this word is 'unity', in other words the state of being one. When you think along these lines it becomes quite clear that a business must never function in isolation, but as an integral part of society."
"This is what the Telkom Foundation has been doing all along. Whether it's the provision of ICT equipment or mobile libraries, Rally to Read, or providing assistance to underprivileged learners, Telkom, through its Foundation, is focused on strengthening the 'unity' in 'community'," concluded Ms Moholi.
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1. Telkom Team
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About Telkom
Telkom is a leading communications services provider in South Africa and on the African continent. We had consolidated operating revenue from continuing operations of R33.1 billion and profit for the year from continuing operations of R179 million for the year ended 31 March 2012. Total assets from continuing operations amounted to R52.6 billion and equity attributable to the owners of Telkom to R29.7 billion as of 31 March 2012. The group generated free cash flow of R2.1 billion for the year ended 31 March 2012.
As of 31 March 2012, we had approximately 4.0 million telephone access lines in service and 99.9% of our telephone access lines were connected to digital exchanges. We offer business, residential and payphone customers a wide range of services and products, including:
- fixed-line subscription and connection services to post-paid, prepaid and private payphone customers using PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) lines, including ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) lines, and the sale of the subscription based value-added voice services and customer premises equipment rental and sales;
- fixed-line traffic services to post-paid, prepaid, and payphone customers, including local, long distance, fixed-to-mobile, international outgoing and international voice-over-internet protocol traffic services;
- interconnection services, including terminating and transiting traffic from South African mobile operators, as well as from international operators and transiting traffic from mobile to international destinations;
- fixed-line data centre operations and internet services, including domestic and international data transmission services, such as point-to-point leased lines, ADSL (Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Line) services, packet-based services, managed data networking services and internet access and related information technology services;
- e-commerce, including internet access service provider, application service provider, hosting, data storage, e-mail and security services;
- W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), a 3G next generation network, including fixed voice services, data services and nomadic voice services;
- mobile communication services, data services and handset sales through its mobile brand called 8•ta; and
- other services including directory services, through Trudon (Proprietary) Limited, wireless data services, through Swiftnet (Proprietary) Limited and internet services outside South Africa, through iWayAfrica Group (integration of Africa Online Limited and MWEB Africa Limited).