The yearslong legal fight over whether the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) may probe Telkom is finally close to resolution, after the supreme court of appeal heard the matter on 28 May and reserved judgment.

The hearing, disclosed in Telkom’s annual financial statements for the year ended 31 March 2026 published this week, will determine whether the anti-corruption unit can resume an investigation into Telkom dealings stretching back nearly two decades – or whether the probe is dead for good.

The dispute dates to January 2022, when President Cyril Ramaphosa issued Proclamation 49 of 2022 directing the SIU to investigate allegations of serious maladministration, malpractice and possible corruption at Telkom going as far back as June 2006.

The scope included the partially state-owned operator’s aborted foray into Nigeria – its ill-fated acquisition and later disposal of Multi-Links Telecommunications, estimated to have cost more than R10-billion – along with the sale of iWayAfrica and Africa Online Mauritius, the procurement of telegraph services, and advisory work on Telkom’s broadband and mobile strategy.

Telkom took Ramaphosa to court in 2022, arguing the proclamation was unlawful because Telkom is not a “state institution”, does not use public money and does not control public property as contemplated in the SIU Act. In July 2023, the high court in Pretoria agreed and set the proclamation aside, declaring it unconstitutional, invalid and of no force or effect, and finding that Telkom fell outside the SIU’s reach. The unit was ordered to return the documents it had gathered.

‘State institution’

Group CEO Serame Taukobong said at the time that the allegations had already been dealt with through Telkom’s corporate governance processes and that the outcomes were a matter of public record. The company said it had gone to court because, left unchallenged, the proclamation would have set a dangerous precedent on the role of the state in private enterprise.

The SIU did not let the matter rest. It moved to appeal the ruling within weeks, arguing that the courts needed to give a fuller definition of what constitutes a “state institution” because the answer would set a precedent for which entities the unit could investigate. By late 2023, the two sides were back in court, and in December that year the high court granted both the president and the SIU leave to appeal to the appeal court.

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That appeal has now been argued. With judgment reserved, a decision could come at any time. Telkom, for its part, said in its results that the matters under investigation date back as far as 2006, have been repeatedly reported on, and that it expects no material impact on its financial statements from the outcome.

The wider significance lies in the “state institution” question. Telkom is no ordinary private company: the government holds 40.51% of its shares and the Government Employees Pension Fund a further 11.08%. How the supreme court of appeal draws the line between public and private will matter well beyond Telkom, shaping the reach of the SIU’s powers across corporate South Africa. – © 2026 NewsCentral Media