From trade unionist to one of the wealthiest women in South Africa

Irene Charnley is one of South Africa’s most successful businesswomen, known for striking crucial deals that have cemented herself as a telecoms veteran with an estimated net worth of over R1 billion.

Listed by Forbes in 2020 as one of Africa’s 50 Most Powerful Women, Charnley has progressed from being a skilled trade union negotiator to one of the country’s wealthiest women.

Charnley was born on 6 May 1960. She grew up with her widowed mother and two siblings in a low-income Cape Flats community. “My greatest hero of all was my mother,” said Charnley in an interview with Forbes Africa.

“She showed me every day that our circumstances need not define us and how important it is to balance strength and determination with love, kindness and humanity. My mother showed me how to be brave.”

In her early years, she completed a certificate in Graphic Art, Reproduction and Technology from the College of London of Printing in England and a certificate in Industrial Relations from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Charnley first made her mark as a negotiator for South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), where she spent 13 years coordinating various divisions of the union’s operations.

“Working at the NUM taught me a great deal and laid the foundation for my future in the corporate world,” said Charnley.

“To do my job, negotiating increased wages and improved conditions of employment, I had to master all of the issues, irrespective of their complexity,” she said.

From her time at NUM, she said that three key lessons guided her when she moved from the negotiating table to the boardroom table.

• First, learn fearlessly. Follow that old piece of advice: when others sleep, you read.
• Secondly, never think you know everything; be humble and courageous to keep asking until you understand. Do not be afraid to make mistakes.
• Thirdly, you only really understand something when you can explain it in simple terms in less than three minutes.

These three lessons served her well in the corporate world, which she entered after her trade union days.

Corporate world

Following her trade union days, Charnley moved into the corporate world. She was a founding member of the National Empowerment Consortium, which acquired a 35% stake in Johnnic Holdings.

As an executive director at Johnnic, she directed the company’s strategic shift towards media, entertainment, and telecommunications.

Charnley’s involvement in acquisitions and asset swaps led to Johnnic’s acquisition of M-Cell, which later became MTN Group Limited.

She also facilitated the Ikageng share scheme at Johnnic, which provided approximately 32,000 previously disadvantaged individuals with share ownership and a 400% return on their investment over three years.

A significant move was when Charnley became an executive director of the MTN Group. MTN was only operational in a few African countries when she joined the company.

She also served as an executive director for MTN Group when it grew to become a major telecommunications company in Africa.

She oversaw the listing of MTN Holdings through M-Cell Limited and played a significant role in its development as a prominent BEE company on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

Her negotiating skills from her trade union days were put to the test in this role. She played a pivotal role in acquiring the second GSM license in Iran and securing one of four GSM licenses in Nigeria.

Charnley also led successful acquisitions in Côte d’Ivoire, Congo-Brazzaville, and Zambia, while identifying strategic opportunities like Investcom, operating across ten Middle Eastern and North African countries.

She spearheaded initiatives like MTN Banking, a 50% joint venture with a national bank, and played a crucial role in securing financing for an 18.8% management buy-in of MTN Group.

She left MTN in 2007. Forbes reported that Charnley, Executive Vice President of the MTN Group at the time, left with a healthy amount of stock, valued at over US$150 million.

After leaving MTN, Charnley co-founded and became CEO of Smile Telecom Holdings in 2007, a company that offers a range of broadband solutions.

It has operations in Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2015, Smile raised $365 million, including $50 million from the PIC.

The funds aimed to expand Smile’s 4G network in Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda, and DRC, but competition and economic challenges, including currency devaluation, led to underperformance since 2017.

Charnley and her co-founder retired from the board in January 2021, however she remains active in other roles.

A celebrated career

Charnley’s career has garnered significant recognition, including being named Businesswoman of the Year in 2000 for her work at Johnnic Holdings.

Her achievements have also earned her a place among Fortune Magazine’s Top 50 Businesswomen outside of the USA.

More recently, in 2021, Charnley received the Standard Bank Top Woman Lifetime Achiever Award for her long-term impact on perceptions of women’s roles in society and her contributions to business in South Africa.

“I believe that social and economic justice must prevail [and] in the importance of remaining grounded and humble. And I believe in my ability to achieve anything I set my mind to,” said Charnley.

“Although my journey is – hopefully – nowhere near its end, I suspect that some of the most important lessons still lie ahead.”

“Every day, when I step into the office, I feel that, in some small way, I am making a contribution to changing the world for the better. That sense of mission makes every problem surmountable and every victory more meaningful,” she added.