Telkom’s suspended chief financial officer, Jacques Schindehütte, has retired from the group’s board. The telecommunications operator has agreed to pay him his full retirement benefits and to discontinue disciplinary proceedings against him.
Telkom made the surprise announcement 30 minutes before markets closed on Friday.
“Shareholders are advised that Mr Schindehütte will retire from the board with immediate effect,” Telkom said in a tersely worded statement issued on the JSE’s Sens news service.
The news comes just two days after the disciplinary hearing was set to resume following a long adjournment agreed to by both parties.
Neither Schindehütte nor Telkom have said why he was suspended. Schindehütte has consistently denied that a R6m loan granted to him by the company, which he used to buy shares in the telecommunications operator, was behind the suspension.
Last year, Telkom said its board had determined that the “fairest way forward was to provide Mr Schindehütte the opportunity to defend himself in a disciplinary hearing”. Both parties were constrained from discussing the matter outside the hearing or commenting on the process’s content to third parties.
Before joining Telkom, Schindehütte was chief financial officer at Absa. — © 2014 NewsCentral Media