What is material in our value-creation process
Stakeholder engagement
Various stakeholders are integral to Telkom's existence and our strategic objectives.
We balance our stakeholders' needs with our responsibility to provide reliable products, services, and information and communication networks. We do this by building relationships on universal stakeholder management principles including trust, respect, transparency and constructive engagement.
We engage stakeholders according to our stakeholder engagement framework and policy. Our Stakeholder Engagement programme identifies stakeholders, endeavours to understand their various challenges and expectations, and aligns these to Telkom's strategic and operational objectives and targets.
During the year, we focused on formalising our stakeholder engagement framework and holding regular feedback sessions with stakeholder owners and monitoring action plans to implementation. During the year, we:
- updated our stakeholder engagement framework and policy, including approval by the exco and the social and ethics committee; and
- developed a review process to monitor the implementation of stakeholder management response strategies throughout the group.
For the next financial year we will focus on customers and improve customer experience across the group.
We are working towards improving all other stakeholder relationships across our stakeholder groups from being acceptable to strong.
Governance structure
Responsibility for stakeholder management flows from the board to management. Implementing our governance structure is essential to our stakeholder management objectives.
| Level | How we work together to manage stakeholder relationships |
Board of directors |
The board drives the stakeholder engagement framework. |
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Social and ethics |
The committee assists the board in fulfilling its responsibilities by ensuring that key stakeholder relationships are effectively managed and by approving the stakeholder engagement framework and policy. |
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Group chief executive |
The GCEO ensures commitment to effective stakeholder management. |
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Executive committee |
Critical stakeholder matters are built into the exco’s meeting agenda. The stakeholder management profile is reviewed and discussed. Specific members are assigned to monitor specific stakeholder groups. |
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Social, ethics and |
We have recently re-established the council. The stakeholder matters and mitigation’s are monitored, among other agenda items. The council will convene monthly going forward. The stakeholder matters and mitigations are monitored, among other agenda items. |
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Head of stakeholder |
Facilitates and monitors stakeholder management across all business units and implements the stakeholder management framework. |
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Management |
Management is the ultimate owner of stakeholder management matters and is Management responsible for managing response strategies. |
Our stakeholders
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| Investor community |
Government and regulators |
Customers | Media | Suppliers | Communities | Organised labour |
Employees |
Effectiveness of stakeholder engagement
Properly assessing stakeholder relationships is critical to management. It allows management to prioritise resources. The effectiveness of stakeholder engagements and relations are assessed based on the table below. We have assessed our investor relationships as strong, and the remaining relationships as acceptable.
| Relationship quality | Required response | |
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Weak stakeholder relationship  |
High level of intervention required |
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Acceptable stakeholder relationship  |
Moderate level of intervention required |
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Strong stakeholder relationship  |
Low level of intervention required, if any |
Stakeholders and importance to Telkom |
Key concerns |
Telkom's response |
Corresponding |
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Includes equity and debt investors, strategic shareholders and sell-side analysts. The investor community creates access to equity and debt markets and ultimately drives demand for Telkom shares, thereby impacting our market capitalisation. |
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Including Parliament, the Department of Telecommunication and Postal Services (DTPS), the Department of Communications, Competition Commission and ICASA. Government and regulators set policies, legislation and regulations that impact the cost of doing business and the ability to derive a reasonable return on investment. They have the authority to penalise the group through fines for non-compliance. |
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Customers underpin our existence and drive our reputation and brand. They are the market for our products and services. Customers guide our product or service development in terms of new trends. |
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The media has an influence on public perception and brand reputation. |
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Suppliers underpin our value chain and have a direct influence on our raw materials and other input costs. Suppliers' delivery impacts our ability to fulfil customer expectations. |
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Communities are our customers and our source of employees. They can be impacted by our operations. |
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Organised labour supports sound labour practices and assists in communicating labour-related matters. It is a strategic partner in shared value between the group and our employees. The relationship can influence the group's strategic plans through industrial action. |
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Employees possess the intellectual capital required for all core and supporting business processes. They are our strategic partner in ensuring that the group is sustainable through performance, culture and skills. |
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