Safaricom Appoints Two Vodacom Executives as Former PS Resigns from Board

Safaricom PLC has appointed two senior Vodacom Group executives to its Board of Directors, following the resignation of two non-executive directors.

The telecommunications company announced on Thursday, August 13, that Mariam Cassim and Matimba Mbungela will join the board as Non-Executive Directors, subject to regulatory approvals.

“Safaricom PLC has appointed two senior Vodacom Group executives to its Board of Directors, following the resignation of two non-executive directors. The telecommunications company announced on Thursday, August 13, that Mariam Cassim and Matimba Mbungela had joined the board as Non-Executive Directors, subject to regulatory approvals,” part of the announcement read.

The appointments followed the resignation of James Ludlow and John Kipngetich Mosonik as Non-Executive Directors, with their departures taking effect on August 13.

Safaricom’s Board thanked the outgoing directors for their contributions to the company’s board and committee meetings and wished them well in their future endeavours.

Safaricom Names Two Board Members

Mariam Cassim is a South African business executive with extensive experience in financial services, telecommunications and corporate finance.

She has served as Vodacom’s Chief Executive Officer for Financial Services since January 2019, having previously been the company’s Managing Executive for Financial Services from November 2016 to January 2019.

Before joining Vodacom, Cassim served as an Independent Non-Executive Director at Super Group between July 2015 and December 2020. She also worked as Executive Head of Commercial at Telesure Group Services from January 2015 to October 2016.

Cassim holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the UCT Graduate School of Business, which she completed between 2013 and 2014.

She also undertook a short course in behavioural economics and finance at Yale School of Management in 2015.

On the other hand, Mbungela is Vodacom Group’s Chief Human Resources Officer, a position he has held since 2014.

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Before becoming Chief Human Resources Officer, Mbungela was Managing Executive for Human Resources at Vodacom South Africa from July 2013 to March 2014.

He previously worked at Vodafone, where he served as Regional Head of Organization Effectiveness and Change for Africa, the Middle East and Asia Pacific from August 2011 to June 2013.

He has also held senior human resources positions at BMW South Africa and Unilever and serves on the boards of Vodacom Tanzania, Vodacom Mozambique and Vodacom Lesotho.

The changes followed Vodacom’s increase in its effective stake in Safaricom to 55 percent after completing the transaction in June 2026.

This came after shareholders approved 14 special resolutions that strengthened Vodacom’s control of the telecommunications company.

The approved resolutions gave Vodacom board appointment rights and allowed it to nominate Safaricom’s CEO for as long as it holds more than 50 percent of the company.

They also introduced a mechanism to resolve deadlocks involving directors appointed by major shareholders, while retaining the government’s approval powers over changes to Safaricom’s brand and its expansion outside Kenya and Ethiopia.

Vodafone Kenya will have the right to appoint one director for every 10% of the shareholding.

Based on its 54.94% stake, it has five director appointment rights. The National Treasury would get two appointment rights from its 20% stake under the same formula.

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