The Communication Workers’ Union will meet with Vodacom on Friday to discuss a range of matters, including alleged corruption and nepotism.

“We are meeting them tomorrow morning at their offices in Midrand,” union spokesman Matankana Mothapo told Sapa on Thursday. “Some of the issues relate to media reports alleging corruption and nepotism and the release of a KPMG report concerning the management of funds in that institution.”

The CWU said it was “disgusted” about reports alleging management of funds by the group’s former CEO, Alan Knott-Craig. It called on the “upper echelons of Vodacom” to make the KPMG forensic report public.

Mothapo called communications minister Siphiwe Nyanda to set up an independent commission of enquiry into the matter. “And if the former CEO indeed was involved in these illegal processes of issuing tenders to his son and nieces without following proper procedures, he must face the music and be dealt with.”

The Sunday Times reported at the weekend that the KPMG forensic audit report was compiled after two former Vodacom employees accused Knott-Craig of exploiting company resources for the benefit of family members.

The independent report was commissioned by Vodacom shareholders in 2008, company spokesman Richard Boorman said earlier this week.

Meanwhile, Knott-Craig’s accuser, former Vodacom executive Mandla Mdluli, had been fired by the cellphone group for “perjury”, according to a report in Business Day newspaper.

The newspaper said Mdluli, who made the allegations which to the KPGM audit, was a prominent member of the Tiger Consortium, a black-empowered group that unsuccessfully applied to participate in Vodacom’s R7,5bn empowerment transaction.

Business Day quoted Vodacom spokesman Richard Boorman as saying that when Tiger’s bid was not accepted, Tiger applied for an interdict to halt the deal. “Mdluli was found to have lied in an affidavit and was dismissed for lying under oath and bringing the company into disrepute,” Boorman reportedly said. — TechCentral, with Sapa