3 October 2002
Honourable Ministers,
Premiers,
Directors-General,
Ladies and gentlemen.
"Our strength is in our sharing".
As you will have seen from our presentation, this is the theme that we are using to mobilise interest and support for the Telkom IPO.
But the same concept of finding strength in sharing applies to the process of developing the public education campaign that we have launched today.
That sharing has involved a large number of people, and it would be remiss of us as the IPO office if we were not to acknowledge the tremendous strength that has been gained from this.
Firstly, a sincere thank you to our political principles for their continued leadership and decisive support, and to the Directors-General in the Treasury, the Department of Communications, the Government Communication & Information System and my own department. Maria, Andile, Joel and Sivi: your support has strengthened and focused this initiative in countless ways and has been critical to its success.
A special word of thanks to our colleagues in Telkom and their financial advisors, UBS Warburgs and African Merchant Bank, who have been invaluable in shaping our thinking around the IPO process and in ensuring the success of this event.
Our appreciation also to the IPO Steering Committee and to the Joint Steering Committee that is overseeing the development and implementation of the IPO. It has been heartening to witness the cooperation and sharing between teams of legal advisors, financial advisors and their various empowerment partners in pursuit of the common objective of a successful public offer. Mention should be made of the contributions by Deutsche Bank London and South Africa, JP Morgan London and South Africa, African Harvest Capital, WipCapital and Legae Securities and Standard Corporate and Merchant Bank, and the various legal teams that have worked on the project.
Particular mention should be made of the public relations and communications working group and the education launch working group, which has overseen the conceptualisation and production of all you have witnessed today. Spin Media, Inroads, Saatchi & Saatchi and banking representatives have burnt the candle at both ends to ensure the development of a powerful communications campaign of which we can all be proud, and worked particularly hard to ensure the success of this launch. We thank you for that.
In the same vein, we would like to thank members of the media for their ongoing interest in the IPO process, and trust we can count on your continued support to ensure that the IPO message reaches every corner of our country.
In addition, we pay tribute to some of our partners in the public education campaign: Standard Bank and the South African Post Office, who are playing a crucial role in ensuring the availability of some of our information products; the JSE Securities Exchange, which has played a valuable role in shaping certain aspects of the campaign; READ, which is ensuring that the message will reach our youth in schools; the National Community Radio Forum, which is assisting in delivering messages to communities in outlying areas; IT Consulting, which is hosting the IPO website, and Dimension Data, which is managing the IPO call centre.
As you can hear, this is a production which literally has a cast of hundreds. In my role as head of the IPO office, I have witnessed the way in which these various roleplayers have worked together, overcoming obstacles and finding the best possible solution.
Thank you very much to you all, our guests, for attending this launch today. We look forward to your continued interest and involvement as we roll out the campaign.
Thank you, and have a safe journey home.