Smart Money – Cell C CEO Jorge Mendes

In this Smart Money with Alishia Seckam interview, Jorge Mendes discusses Cell C’s turnaround and its key strategies going forward.

Mendes is the Chief Executive Officer of Cell C and has 25 years of experience in the telecoms industry.

He was appointed as Cell C’s CEO in July 2023. Before this, he had spent the majority of his career working at Vodacom.

This included working for the company in various positions and regions, such as:

• Senior Manager: Customer Services – Vodacom Mozambique
• Executive Head: Customer Care and Sales – Vodacom Tanzania Plc
• Managing Executive: Central Region (Free State and Northern Cape) – Vodacom
• Chief Officer: Consumer Business Unit – Vodacom
• Chief Officer: Distribution and Marketing – Vodacom
• Executive Head: Dealers, Franchise, and Service Provider Channels – Vodacom

Thanks to the diverse range of telecommunications roles he has served in, Mendes is uniquely equipped to lead Cell C into the future.

Since taking over the reins of Cell C in 2023, Mendes has tabled a comprehensive turnaround plan and has made significant strides towards achieving it.

A key part of Mendes’ approach to fixing Cell C has been right-sizing its organisational structure, with its full-time employee headcount below 900 as of May 2025.

This aligns with Mendes’ focus of building a lean workforce comprising highly-skilled employees who can help the company build out its offerings.

This is part of a major focus on creating a capital-light business that can generate better margins than its larger competitors, who must commit significantly more capital into maintaining and developing infrastructure.

Cell C, in contrast, will be flipping capital expenditure into operating expenditure – enabling the company to generate positive cash flow within the next few years.

Smart Money interview

In this Smart Money interview, Mendes discusses Cell C’s current progress on its business stabilisation plans and how successful the shift from a CapEx model to an OpEx model has been.

He reveals how this shift in strategy has freed up resources to improve customer acquisition and increase innovation.

Mendes then outlines Cell C’s strategy moving forward, especially given the organisation’s success in the MVNO sector.

He shares the biggest lesson he’s learned throughout the process of implementing Cell C’s new strategies.

Mendes concludes the interview with an update on Blue Label, Cell C’s owner, which is considering a restructuring that could see Cell C being listed separately on the JSE.

Watch the interview with Jorge Mendes below.