Limpopo Business 2016-17 edition

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2016/04/04 3:20 PM
formal relationships with owners of these
businesses, and this was not easy and was expensive.
You have to be ready with the product
and service you want to implement as keeping informal
outlets updated is no easy task… and often
they don’t understand the delays and so on.
Vodacom
Power to you
What is most exciting thing for you about
the big drive to add base stations and to
connect sites with high-speed service?
Adding more sites and increasing the performance
of our network provides immediate benefit to our
customers, and we see these benefits immediately.
The vision is to provide people of Limpopo with
the same level of connectivity as any other place
in South Africa.
What is the impact of this throughout the
townships in Limpopo?
We believe with certainty that our network overall
is superior. We have more sites than any of our competitors
and will continue to grow this. You can no
longer stereotype and assume that our customers
in the informal areas do not have access to high-end
devices. They are already using Facebook, Twitter,
WhatsApp and so on. In fact many of our customers
use Twitter to inform Vodacom about network
concerns they have from some of the rural areas.
What have you seen as the greatest
growth areas and major developments of
which you are most proud during your 11
years with Vodacom?
The growth of 2G to 4G has to be a highlight. We also
today market our own brand of Vodacom devices
across 3G and LTE. The overall growth of data is
amazing – people have adapted to new technologies
so quickly and are using applications to perform so
many things that they otherwise would not have
done, or would have done differently.
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It has been a bit hard from a personal perspective
but in November I said to Shameel, our CEO,
when he visited the region, that, after 10 years with
Vodacom, this is probably the job with the most
levels of satisfaction.
The reason I feel this way is because I have almost
complete autonomy and also, having been around
for 10 years, my seniors know I will get stuff done.
Overall it’s been really fulfilling. Another great positive
is when you see the results – like any job, there’s
nothing that beats the feeling when you have put the
effort in, you’ve made your plan and implemented
your strategy and you see it come to fruition. I don’t
think anything beats that.
You have been with Vodacom for a long
time, so this opportunity must be a really
interesting challenge for you?
I’ve been with Vodacom for 11 years and they’ve
been pushing me to consider a regional position,
so this year I said to myself, “Let me give this a try.”
The network has a huge responsibility for
growth in Limpopo as it impacts on the
lives and businesses of so many people.
The vision for me is to leave Limpopo from a connectivity
perspective in a better place than when
I arrived. It is proven worldwide that access to
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