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The listing of telephone utility Telkom will benefit the small black elite, not the poorest of the poor, the SA Communist Party said on Wednesday.

"In many quarters, the privatisation and listing of Telkom is seen as an opportunity to take over public resources for personal enrichment - preferably at a discount - by a few black elite in the righteous name of black economic empowerment," it said in a statement in Johannesburg.

"We have said time and again that putting the parastatal in private hands will lead to poor people not accessing telecommunication."
The SACP said the organisation had expressed "deep" concern about the "ill-considered" privatisation of Telkom.

If the parastatal was not listed, the Black Business Council (BBC) would not have criticised the government for failure to advance black economic empowerment.

Following government's backing down on Tuesday on the original eligibility terms for the discounted Telkom shares in terms of the so-called Khulisa offer, BBC chairman David Moshapelo said government's about-turn threatened to undo much of what had been achieved for black economic empowerment.

The Khulisa share offer was designed to benefit only historically disadvantaged individuals.

The government's announcement came after the Solidarity - a trade union - threatened with court action unless government abandon its racial prescriptions with the sale of Telkom shares.

The offer is now income-based.

The SACP said: "The outrage serves one useful purpose - Telkom should not have been listed or privatised in the first place.

"The outrage blows the cover off those who have sought to hide their naked class and personal agendas behind the call for black economic empowerment."
It was incumbent on the BBC to explain how privatisation and listing of Telkom would ensure job-creation and greater investment in community development, the organisation said.

The SACP said promoting business opportunities for a few emerging black private businesses might, in some instances, frustrate the realisation of wider economic empowerment - Sapa.

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