The Zimbabwe government is pressing ahead with the restructuring of state-owned mobile operator NetOne and has issued the company with a warning to urgently solve ongoing boardroom issues.

Analysts claim the issues stem from the basic structure of the company which allows the Minister responsible for ICT to influence board appointments.

NetOne board chairman James Mutizwa recently resigned, along with two other board members, Sibonile Dhliwayo and Keunetsi Mpandawana.

One of the board members stated: "The reason behind my resignation is that the board is currently being run in an unprofessional manner which makes it difficult for me to render my services and responsibilities in a professional and objective manner."

Officials within the Ministry of Finance told ITWeb Africa on Wednesday that Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube has now demanded that boardroom disputes be solved because these are sending out "bad signals" to potential investors.

"He (Finance Minister) is not happy with these developments at NetOne and he wants the board sorted so that investors start to weigh their options. There are some regional companies that have shown interest but it's difficult for them to see value as things remain like this," said one official.

Former NetOne chief executive officer Reward Kangai recently detailed violations of corporate governance practices such as the irregular awarding of contracts and tenders.

Minister Ncube said despite boardroom upheavals and allegations of corporate governance violations, the telco will declare a dividend this year.

He said: "NetOne is going to declare a dividend and handover a cheque to government, this is a good performance coming out of the state enterprises reform agenda."

Ncube previously stated that NetOne and TelOne will be bundled together before being auctioned off under a commercialisation scheme.