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Chairman’s
statement
Peter Moyo
This has been another pleasing year for Vodacom,
with significant value created for each of the
company’s stakeholders.
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For shareholders, Vodacom delivered a total shareholder return
of 0.4% year-on-year, with headline earnings per share (HEPS) up
4.5% to 923 cents per share, and a final dividend of 435 cents
per share, totalling 830 cents per share for the year.
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Customers have continued to benefit from the significant
investment in the Vodacom network, and our activities in
reducing voice and data costs, providing highly personalised
packages, and expanding our product and service offerings in
such areas as digital content, inclusive finance, insurance and the
Internet of Things (IoT). Recognition of these benefits is reflected
in Vodacom’s leading performance in net promoter score (NPS)
in South Africa, the DRC and Lesotho, and the various reputation
awards that the Company once again received this year.
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In addition to the employment and personal development
opportunities, Vodacom’s 7 589 employees have enjoyed the
benefits of working in a diverse and broadly representative
office environment that recognises and rewards top
performance, invests in talent development, and fosters a
culture of employee engagement.
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The broader community has benefited from the increased levels
of connectivity across all of Vodacom’s markets, including
digital-inclusion initiatives such as M-Pesa, our Siyakha platform
and Vodacom e-school, as well as from our increased financial
contribution in the form of public finances and tax contributions,
procurement payments, and corporate social investments.
This substantial value generated and shared over the year reflects
the effective execution of the Group’s strategy, in the face of
challenging market conditions across all operations.
Engaging with government in
South Africa
This has been an eventful year in South Africa, both for business
in general and for the telecoms sector in particular. The recent
sovereign debt rating downgrade, the continuing political
uncertainty, and weak levels of job growth, have placed a strain on
the economy and on levels of business and consumer confidence.
In the telecoms sector, we have seen strong consumer calls to
reduce data prices, as well as some significant regulatory and
policy developments.
We have engaged with government throughout the year on
their Integrated ICT Policy White Paper, and more recently on
the revised ICT sector code for Broad-based Black Economic
Empowerment. Vodacom’s Vision 2020 strategy shares
government’s underlying objective of broadening access to
connectivity and realising the full potential of ICT as a means of
achieving the country’s developmental goals. In my review last
year, I spoke of the closer dialogue that we were seeing between
government and business, and of the expressed willingness of
many government leaders to address some of business’s key
concerns. The need for such dialogue remains as important as
ever. As an industry, the telecoms sector can play an instrumental
role in driving further transformation and facilitating inclusive
economic growth. For this to be fully realised, however, it is critical
that we work together to find solutions that are in our collective
interest, and that most effectively harness the power of the
market to drive the innovation that the ICT sector can provide.
It is, therefore, important that the carefully considered hybrid
solution as proposed is accepted to move the industry forward
and help government achieve its objectives.
02
Vodacom Group Limited
Integrated report for the year ended 31 March 2017