On Wednesday, Telkom notified unions of its intention to start retrenchments as it battled organisational and operational inefficiencies related to a declining performance in fixed voice and fixed data services. Reuters earlier reported that Telkom would consider voluntary severance and early retirement packages for employees affected by phase one of the job cuts, which will affect employees at Openserve and the consumer divisions from January to April. Following this, Ndabeni-Abrahams voiced her concern and scheduled an urgent meeting with Telkom to be "fully briefed on the matter". Fedusa requested government's intervention and called for the dismissal of the board. Government owns a 39% stake in Telkom.