Senior managers at Telkom must be brought to book for alleged corruption and fraud at the parastatal, the Communication Workers Union said on Friday.

This included managers who were resigning, said union spokesman Matankana Mothapo, who questioned the timing of the resignations.

“We are concerned about the level of corruption taking place and the misuse of public funds by those people in power,” he said.

“Now that Telkom is busy with investigations, people start resigning. There is something wrong with that,” he said, charging: “They have benefited and they are now running scared.”

Mothapo said the Telkom board had not provided strategic leadership to the company.

“The board has allowed the entity to fall in to a state of crisis due to the vacuum that exists in top management and the infighting between the chairman and the former CEO.”

He further claimed that workers had been left on the periphery as a result of unfair salary increments biased in favour of “a certain race”.

Mothapo, who referred to the senior managers as “looters”, said his union was disappointed with how things were unfolding at Telkom and called on its chairman Jeff Molobela to make public a report by forensic auditors.

However, Telkom spokesman Pynee Chetty said the company was still studying the recommendations made in the report.

“Only after looking at the recommendations will we know which action to take (against anyone). The report will not be made public now but only after the perusal process is complete,” said Chetty. — Sapa