On the one hand, he is meant to maximise Telkom's value to potential buyers.
ECONOMIST: Telkom, the state telecoms monopoly, still has much to do
Telkom's monopoly makes it easy to squeeze prosperous urban customers to subsidise services for the poor.
ECONOMIST: Telkom, the state telecoms monopoly, still has much to do
The bulk of the next tranche of Telkom shares, for instance, is earmarked for black investors.
Telkom, South Africa's biggest telecoms company, was privatised eight years ago with a monopoly over fixed lines.
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Telkom is even fighting a court case to prevent other firms from offering access to the Internet itself.
ECONOMIST: Telkom, the state telecoms monopoly, still has much to do
Sizwe Nxasana, Telkom's chief executive, says he is sure that the targets will be met, and the monopoly prolonged.
ECONOMIST: Telkom, the state telecoms monopoly, still has much to do
Even some municipalities are rolling out wireless services as an alternative to Telkom.
Some also think the government could have secured much more than 6 billion rand for the 30% of Telkom already sold.
By retarding the information-technology industry, they argue, Telkom's monopoly makes South African banks, retailers and almost every other business less competitive.
ECONOMIST: Telkom, the state telecoms monopoly, still has much to do
How much of its 67% stake in Telkom will the government sell?
ECONOMIST: Telkom, the state telecoms monopoly, still has much to do
Last month, the independent regulator imposed a cap on Telkom price rises.
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The government reckons, for instance, that 27, 000 jobs need to be lost at Transnet, the state transport company, and 10, 000 at Telkom.
More serious is the effect of Telkom, the state telephone monopoly.
With its New York listing, Telkom is bound by strict rules against payment of bribes, and risks losing investors as well as being slapped with fines.
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The firm is part owned by Vodafone, the world's largest mobile operator, which is based in Britain, and part by Telkom, which is listed in Johannesburg and New York.
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And several service providers, using a number of different technologies, have sprung up offering wireless alternatives to Telkom's costly fixed-line broadband service, which is expensive by European standards, let alone African ones.
Even the proposed sale later this year of another 20% of Telkom, the telecoms outfit, should bring in 15 billion-20 billion rand, and may help to make it cheaper to use telephones and the Internet.
Since 1997, Telkom has cut the time it takes to repair faults, reduced international charges by 50% in real terms, and started laying a massive undersea fibre-optic cable to carry data between Africa and Europe.
ECONOMIST: Telkom, the state telecoms monopoly, still has much to do
Telkom's introduction of pre-payment cards for home telephones, sold everywhere from petrol stations to village shops, eliminates the risk that poor customers will not be able to pay their bills, and improves the firm's cashflow into the bargain.
ECONOMIST: Telkom, the state telecoms monopoly, still has much to do
Telkom may welcome such limited competition.
ECONOMIST: Telkom, the state telecoms monopoly, still has much to do
ECONOMIST: Telkom, the state telecoms monopoly, still has much to do
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