State-owned signal distributor Sentech will lose its chairman of the board.
Quraysh Patel handed his resignation to newly appointed communications minister Roy Padayachie yesterday.
Patel's tenure at Sentech is short-lived, as he joined the government entity on 1 April.
Meanwhile, Padayachie has appointed Sentech board member Leah Khumalo as acting chairperson.
According to Sentech, Patel discussed his resignation with former communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda last month and had requested to be released in November.
He resigned because he needed to continue his work in the industry and could not do so while he was chairperson, as he wanted to avoid a perception of conflict of interest.
“This is the only reason for my departure,” says Patel.
Sentech has been through several top-level ructions after a new board was appointed in April. COO Beverly Ngwenya replaced former CEO Sebiletso Mokone-Matabane, but subsequently resigned in the face of disciplinary action. CFO Mohammed Cassim is currently on suspension pending a disciplinary process.
Nonetheless, Patel is confident Sentech is financially secure and will soon be operationally stable when senior executives are appointed to join CEO Dr Setumo Mohapi, who started on 1 November.
“At this stage, the CEO is fully in charge of the daily operations of the company, which is well on its way to sustainability,” notes Sentech.
Patel, who is a trained lawyer and has a consulting business that specialises in ICT regulation, says he wants to leave Sentech now before it begins its three-year planning cycle later this month.
“If I leave now, then I will not be privy to sensitive information that will come out of that planning session. Until now, I have worked on a one-year strategy for Sentech and its objectives have been achieved,” he says.
Patel, who took over just under seven months ago, had to lead the board in making several radical decisions to bring the national signal distributor out of the red and make it financially viable.
These decisions included bringing disciplinary charges against Ngwenya and Cassim, the tightening of financial controls, shortening payment times for clients, and cutting costs.
“Sentech now has R250 million cash in the bank compared to the financial position it was in five months ago, when we were forecasting that we would be R100 million in the red by the beginning of next year,” Patel says.
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