Vodacom Integrated Report 2016

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Integrated thinking: Our approach to the
six capitals
Integrated thinking is intrinsic to how we manage our business
and to our internal strategy and reporting practices. Our strategy
development process included a review of Vodacom’s business
model and our interaction and interdependency with the external
societal context. The resulting strategic priorities and three-year
goals and targets have been developed to ensure that we manage
the resources and relationships needed to create value over time.
A considered assessment of the six capitals (as referred to in the
IIRC’s <IR> Framework) informed both our strategy and the internal
materiality process used to determine the content and structure
of this report. As we do not manage our business in terms of these
capitals, and this is not an approach typically adopted by our target
audience, we have not structured our report against the capitals.
A review of our interaction with the key resources and relationships
impacting value is presented on page 16.
Combined assurance
We use a combined assurance model to provide us with assurance
obtained frommanagement and from internal and external
assurance service providers. PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc. audited
our consolidated annual financial statements 2016. Ernst & Young
Inc. performed a ‘limited assurance’ engagement on selected key
performance indicators linked to our five strategic priorities for the
year ended 31 March 2016. We have also engaged Ernst & Young
Inc to provide a ‘limited assurance’ report on Scope 1, 2 and 3
greenhouse gas emissions that are separately reported in our
sustainability report 2016. Our South African operations are
ISO 9001 certified by the British Standards Institute and Vodacom
Business Nigeria is ISO 9001 – 2008 certified by DQS (Pty) Limited.
Our Audit Committee provides internal assurance to the Board
on an annual basis on the execution of the combined assurance
plan. The Group’s financial, operating, compliance and risk
management controls are assessed by the Group’s internal
audit function, which is overseen by the Audit, Risk and
Compliance Committee.
Board approval
The Board is responsible for ensuring the integrity of the integrated
report. The Board believes that the report addresses all material
issues and presents a balanced and fair account of the Group’s
performance. The integrated report has been developed in
accordance with the guidance provided in the latest <IR>
Framework developed by the IIRC. On the recommendation of the
Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee, the Board approved the
Vodacom annual financial statements and the Vodacom integrated
report on 3 June 2016.
Peter Moyo Shameel Aziz Joosub
Chairman Chief Executive Officer
3 June 2016 3 June 2016
About this report
Thank you for reading Vodacom Group Limited’s
integrated report for the year ended 31 March 2016.
Our report aims to provide our stakeholders with a
concise, material, transparent and understandable
assessment of our governance, strategy, performance
and prospects.
Scope and frameworks
This report provides a concise review of Vodacom’s strategy and
business model, risks and opportunities, and operational and
governance performance, for the financial year 1 April 2015
to 31 March 2016. The report covers the activities of the Vodacom
Group and all our operating subsidiaries. Financial and non-financial
data from our subsidiaries are fully consolidated1 . Our reporting
process has been guided by the principles and requirements
contained in the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS),
the International Integrated Reporting Councils (IIRC’s)
<IR> Framework, the GRI’s G4 Guidelines, the King Code on
Corporate Governance 2009 (King III), the JSE Listings Requirements
and the South African Companies Act of 2008, as amended. We have
provided extracts from the consolidated annual financial statements
(AFS) in our printed Integrated report. The consolidated annual
financial statements were audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers Inc.
who expressed an unmodified opinion thereon. These extracts are
extracted from audited information, but are not audited. The full set
of consolidated annual financial statements (AFS), as well as a suite
of additional reports, are available online or can be requested from
our Company Secretary.
Materiality: Assessing value creation at Vodacom
This report provides information on all those matters that we
believe could substantively affect value creation at Vodacom.
Written primarily for current and prospective investors, the report is
of interest to any stakeholder who wishes to make an informed
assessment of Vodacom’s ability to create value over time. In the
belief that all the information in this report is material, we do not
seek to provide a simple listing of ‘material issues’. To identify and
prioritise the matters for inclusion in this report we undertook a
structured process involving senior decision-makers from across
the Group. The process involved a considered review of:
Vodacom’s business model; our interaction with the six capitals
(financial, manufactured, human and intellectual, social and
relationship, and natural capital); our operating environment;
the interests of our key stakeholders; and Vodacom’s strategy.
The outcomes of this process were reviewed and signed off by the
Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee. This report presents the
identified material information through a clearly structured
narrative (see page 20). Additional information not material to this
report, but of interest for other purposes, is provided in our other
reports and on our website.
1. Where we only have data for our South African operation (which represents 73.9% of service revenue and 82.4% of EBITDA), we indicate this with (#). We’ve used (*) to indicate
normalised growth adjusted for trading foreign exchange gains/losses and at a constant currency (using current year as base), (collectively ‘foreign exchange’).
For our GRI content index go to vodacom