Big exec shakeup at South African telecoms giant

MTN revamped its South Africa management to spur growth after the continent’s biggest mobile-phone operator by revenue returned to a profit in the first half of 2025.

The company reported a net income of R9.75 billion in the the six months to June 30, MTN said in a statement on Monday.

It had reported a loss of R7.39 billion in the same period last year because of currency depreciations in Nigeria and Ghana. 

The wireless carrier plans to bolster its operations in South Africa and is expanding the role of Chief Financial Officer Tsholofelo Molefe to include mergers and acquisitions.

The company has appointed Ferdi Moolman to succeed Charles Molapisi as the company’s South Africa CEO and named Yolanda Cuba as deputy CEO.

“Molapisi led MTN SA through a challenging period of high power outages and network resilience, maintaining the company’s network leadership,” the MTN Group said.

“He has a strong background in network and IT and will remain on the group executive committee taking up his previous role as group chief technology and information officer.”

Molapisi will have additional responsibilities and focus on speeding up AI use case adoption and infusion across the business.

“We see a significant value-creation opportunity over the medium-term in the leveraging of AI across the business in domains such as network, customer operations and workforce productivity,” the company said.

MTN said that Moolman’s replacement as group chief risk officer will be announced in due course and the role will continue to be included in the group executive committee.