A Telkom employee in Durban has been caught red-handed telephoning a colleague's wife and making a subscriber pay for the telephone call.
Telkom subscribers have long suspected that massive bills for calls that they did not make were, in fact, made by Telkom staff.
There was a spate of complaints in Durban towards the end of 1999 from subscribers saying they had been charged with, among other things, calls to international sex lines - when they were not even at home at the time.
Telkom's response was to tell people to settle the account or lose the service.
Attorney Renu Sewpersad, of Reservoir Hills, caught a Telkom employee in the act.
Sewpersad said: "I had an experience with Telkom that left me in no doubt about the fact that Telkom is charging its clients for calls that they do not make.
"On Tuesday January 18 at 11.40 I attempted to use my business telephone. Using the speaker facility of my telephone, I realised that a casual conversation was going on between a man and a woman.
"At this point, I heard the man say: 'You know, I'm using somebody else's line.'
"The telephone number dialled appeared on my print-out," she said.
"I reported the matter to Telkom, and after the investigation, I was informed by Telkom that the Telkom employee who tapped into my line to make a telephone call admitted liability. The employee said that it was an emergency call that he had to make.
"Yet the conversation I heard was a casual and friendly one between a man and woman which lasted for approximately 10 minutes before I interrupted it. This call was made to a residence in Verulam. It was, therefore, not an emergency call."
Sewpersad's investigations revealed that the call was made by a Telkom employee to the wife of a colleague.
Sewpersad said: "I am outraged. The time has definitely come for Telkom to get its house in order."
Telkom wants Sewpersad to pay R7,90 for the call. Telkom has not commented on the case.
The spate of claims from Telkom subscribers last year that they were charged for calls that they did not make led to suspicion falling on Telkom staff for allegedly making the calls at subscribers' expense.
The Democratic Party's Mark Lowe wrote to Sizwe Nxasana, the chief executive officer at Telkom, in December 1999, seeking clarity.
Nxasana never responded to Lowe's letter.
Lowe on Monday repeated his demand that Telkom admit if its staff made calls at subscribers expense or not.
Meanwhile, subscribers said on Monday that Telkom employees gathered four or five times a week at, and made calls from, a Telkom street box in Marion Avenue, Glenashley.
A Glenashley resident said: "The telephones in Glenashley must be faulty a lot of the time, judging by how often Telkom staff are there to test the lines by talking on them."
A subscriber also reported Telkom staff regularly gathering at a box in Adrain Road, near Sutton Park, Greyville.
Hans van de Groenendaal, Telkom's senior manager for corporate communications, eastern region, said Telkom's investigation staff tracked down the Telkom employee. He admitted to having made the call.
Disciplinary action would now follow which could lead to dismissal.
Van de Groenendaal said technicians were not authorised to make calls on customers' lines. If, during testing, calls needed to be made, these were to toll-free numbers.
"In 1999 there were 574 cases of Telkom employees who were dishonest," he said. About 120 employees were subsequently dismissed while some cases were being investigated.
Telkom employed about 60 000 people and took dishonesty and fraud very seriously, he said.
People can report dishonest actions by Telkom staff on the toll-free line 0800-124-124.