Keith Matthews, MD of BT in South Africa and GM of the UK-headquartered firm’s sub-Saharan Africa region, is stepping down at the end of the month. He will be replaced by a senior technology industry figure on 1 May, but the company is not naming his successor just yet.

Matthews, who has been at the helm at the company for the past five years, says his decision to step down — he intends remaining in South Africa’s telecommunications industry — has been driven by the “transformation requirements we have as a business”.

BT — formerly known as British Telecom — employs 170 people in sub-Saharan Africa, of which about 150 are based in South Africa. It provides IT and telecommunications services to large companies in the region.

“The potential was always there to have someone running the business who was more representative of the transformed environment,” he tells TechCentral. “There was no pressure on me to step down for that reason; it was something I initiated in the company.”

Matthews, who has been with BT for more than eight years, took the leadership reins from Brian Armstrong, who left to take over as MD of Telkom Business. Armstrong was recently named as Telkom’s group chief operating officer.

He says it is important for BT, which already had 30% of its equity in black hands through shareholder Sekunjalo Holdings, to transform further, especially at management level. His decision to step aside and to make way for a new MD will open the door to new business opportunities, especially in the public sector, Matthews says.

“We were sitting at level 5 and because of the skill level in the company, we found it quite difficult to suddenly change the demographic overnight. We have made some appointments at a board level from within the company, which is great.

“Our new [black economic empowerment] scorecard will come out towards the end of May, and I think there will be quite a nice change,” he adds. “Suddenly, the public sector becomes something we are able to target. Because of where we stand, we’ve almost automatically been excluded.”

Matthews now intends taking a short sabbatical, but says he will return to the industry. “There’s no hard and fast plan right now, but I’m not going to sit around for too long.”

He says was given the opportunity to work internationally with BT, but says he and wife are committed to staying in South Africa.