Telkom

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Telkom offered reduced prices, increased connection speeds and payment holidays to customers. It also offered free access to its marketplace and desktop apps to small- and medium-sized enterprises. Further, the company demonstrates best practice by disclosing the number of its employees with disabilities.

The company partnered with Lightbulb, an education platform, helping over 10,700 students access educational materials online during the COVID-19 pandemic. Telkom has also zero-rated more than 200 public service sites to enhance easy access and learning.

Telkom’s IT Steering Committee, which sits above its executive board, is responsible for cybersecurity oversight and reporting. In addition, the company considers cybersecurity a material topic and has a publicly available information security management certificate.

Telkom supports the tech innovation ecosystem through venture capital investments and its subsidiary BCX’s innovation programme that provides incubator and accelerator support to start-ups. Furthermore, the company funds entrepreneurs from underrepresented groups in low-income areas of South Africa. It has a commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and uses the goals as a framework to set its sustainable development targets.

Apart from its initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic, little evidence was found regarding Telkom’s activities to make digital technologies affordable and accessible for vulnerable groups on an ongoing basis. The company can more clearly demonstrate how it supports digital opportunities for women and girls, and how it makes digital products accessible for people with disabilities.

Telkom has an opportunity to broaden its support for the development of basic, intermediate and technical digital skills.

The company can disclose how it monitors, remedies and reports on security incidents. It could also make a high-level commitment to child online safety and support initiatives in this area.

Little evidence was found of Telkom’s activities relating to open, inclusive and ethical innovation. The company has an opportunity to support and report on initiatives in this area. It can further enhance transparency by disclosing the number of women it employs in tech roles, and how it considers ethics in its research and development (R&D) activities.

Telkom commits to respecting human rights and the ILO core labour rights. However, it does not have a publicly available policy statement that expects its business relationships to commit to respecting the ILO core labour rights. Furthermore, the company does not describe a process to identify, assess and act on salient human rights risks associated with its own operations and with its business relationships. Telkom has a grievance mechanism for workers to raise human rights concerns and complaints. However, it is unclear if this mechanism is accessible to external stakeholders.

Telkom states that it strives to create a safe and healthy work environment. However, it does not have a publicly available policy statement committing to respect the health and safety of workers. It also does not disclose whether it expects its business relationships to commit to respecting workers’ health and safety. While the company discloses the proportion of its permanent employees that are members of a trade union, it does not disclose the proportion of its total workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements. In relation to workforce diversity, Telkom provides a breakdown of employees in different employee categories by gender. However, it does not disclose employee breakdowns for any other indicators of diversity per employee category. The company can also disclose information regarding time-bound targets for paying its workers a living wage.

Telkom does not disclose any relevant information in relation to tax, such as a global tax strategy or its income tax payments in individual tax jurisdictions. Similarly, the company does not disclose its approach to lobbying and political engagement. It has no public statement indicating that it does not make political contributions, and it does not disclose its lobbying expenditures. Telkom does include anti-corruption and anti-bribery clauses in its business relationship contracts, but it does not have a publicly available policy statement prohibiting bribery and corruption.