Could former SABC CEO Dali Mpofu or former Vodacom CEO Alan Knott-Craig be approached to take the reins at listed telecommunications group Telkom?

Mpofu and Knott-Craig are two of the high-profile people external to Telkom whose names have been linked to the job in recent weeks.

The speculation, emanating from sources close to both men, comes as Telkom’s board gears up to find a successor to Reuben September. September left Telkom in July after the board, under government-appointed chairman Jeff Molobela, declined to renew his contract.

Former Cell C CEO Jeffrey Hedberg, a US national, has been appointed as Telkom’s acting CEO until a permanent replacement has been found. Hedberg had briefly headed up Telkom’s deeply troubled Nigerian subsidiary, Multi-Links, before being called to head office to run the group.

Though it’s understood that the board hasn’t yet begun interviewing candidates, the telecoms industry is awash with talk that either Mpofu, who left the SABC in 2008 under a cloud, or Knott-Craig, who is still under a restraint of trade with Vodacom, could be in line for the top job at Telkom.

However, Mpofu tells TechCentral that he has no interest in the Telkom job. “I was approached some time ago by one interested party, but I am definitely not interested,” he says.

Even if a formal approach is made to him, Mpofu says he does not want to be Telkom’s next CEO. Instead, he says, he wants to focus all his energies on building his law firm.

Knott-Craig, meanwhile, says his restraint with Vodacom prevents him from working for any company in the information and communications technology industry.

“Part of the restraint is lifted in April next year, and part is lifted in April 2012,” he tells TechCentral.

Knott-Craig, who began his career at Telkom, says he has had no interaction with the board, but admits it “would be fun to have a go at turning Telkom into a really great company, particularly given its strategic importance in providing telecoms infrastructure in SA”.

Asked whether Telkom can be fixed, Knott-Craig says the group is “very fixable” and is hence “the best buy in the telecoms sector, at least in my view”.

It’s not at all clear yet if Telkom’s board will appoint an outsider or prefer, as it did with September, to appoint someone from inside the organisation.

If it opts for the latter, the two strongest candidates are said to be Hedberg (really an external candidate, since he’s only been with Telkom for about six months) and Nombulelo “Pinky” Moholi, the MD of Telkom SA, the group’s biggest operating subsidiary. — Duncan McLeod, TechCentral