In the mid-1990s, when mobile phones began chirping in the hands of South Africans, the future seemed preordained. The copper lines and switchboards of Telkom — then a state-rooted incumbent — looked like relics awaiting extinction. Analysts predicted an elegant demise. Agile mobile operators would feast on its customers. Bureaucracy would smother innovation.
The old order would give way to the new. Three decades later, in 2026, the story reads differently. Telkom has not only survived the technological onslaught; it has re-emerged as a central artery in South Africa’s digital bloodstream.
It is, by many measures, the country’s digital backbone. Telkom added 1.9 million new mobile data users in H1 of, FY26, marking one of the strongest indicators of its ongoing shift into a data-led telecommunications company. Data users now account for 72.1% of Telkom’s total mobile subscriber base. The question is not whether Telkom survived. It is how.
The Inflection Point
Every corporate resurrection has an inflection point — a moment when leaders decide that the past is not destiny. For Telkom, that pivot required abandoning the psychology of a monopoly and embracing the mindset of a competitor. It meant trading bureaucracy for data, hierarchy for agility, and insulation for inclusion.
Among the Telkom executives who were responsible for this commercial transformation, one of them is Simo Mkhize, a telecommunications veteran whose career traces the arc of the industry itself. Over more than two decades, including senior commercial roles at MTN South Africa and earlier experience at Cell C — Mkhize moved through sales, distribution, consumer marketing, and enterprise business across South Africa, Europe, and parts of Africa. He earned an MBA from Milpark Business School, completed postgraduate studies in telecommunications in Austria, and holds an engineering degree from Wits. He has lectured MBA students, blending technical fluency with commercial instinct. But career profiles rarely explain reinventions. The character does.
Simo Mkhize - Chief Commercial Officer at Telkom Consumer
Image: Supplied
Family as Operating System
Spend time with Mkhize, and one hears less about quarterly targets and more about family. For him, family is not a sentimental aside; it is an operating system. It grounds ambition. It disciplines excess. It reminds him that technology is not an end, but a bridge between people. That philosophy — intimate, human, inclusionary — quietly mirrors Telkom’s strategic reset.“Inclusion,” he often says, “means leaving no one behind.” It is an ethos that sounds moral, but functions commercially. It is alive at Telkom.
From Bureaucracy to Data-Driven Precision
There was a time when engaging Telkom felt like navigating a bureaucratic government department. Stores were scarce. Service was distant. Access required patience. Today, Telkom stores appear in shopping centres across the country - not by accident, but by algorithm. Data determines where demand clusters are. Analytics reveal mobility patterns, income densities, and connectivity gaps. Stores are placed where South Africans actually live, shop, and commute. The transformation is subtle but profound: a shift from supply-driven thinking to demand-driven
Placement. The same data logic informs network expansion. Connectivity is no longer deployed solely where it is easiest or most profitable. It is extended where it is needed. The ambition is both economic and ethical in the sense that the growth process is inclusionary.
The success of this data-driven approach is clearly seen in the success experienced by Telkom in the growth that the business has achieved. It is also seen in empowerment programmes such as the Telkom FutureMakers and Telkom Learn. This has not been about just skills; it’s been about inclusion. A key value system at Telkom. This has been done by offering free, flexible learning in tech, business, and communication, which is levelling the playing fields for young South Africans and SMEs. As the digital economy expands, platforms like Telkom Learn aren’t just helpful; they’re essential. And with thousands already seizing the opportunity, what is clear is that SA’s workforce is ready to learn, adapt, and thrive.
Achieving such remarkable results does not come without challenges. Telkom has encountered environments where deploying infrastructure would have been economically unviable. In such instances, Telkom partnered with local players who eased the cost burden and other hurdles. These partnerships have gone a long way in turning difficult situations into opportunities for empowerment and growth. Providing affordable products and services has been another intervention in enabling inclusion and serving all South Africans irrespective of their background and circumstances.
Telkom’s resurgence has rested on a delicate balance which has been about ensuring affordability without compromising. In competitive telecommunications markets, low prices often signal inferior service. Telkom sought to invert that assumption. Through the OneTelkom approach, where Telkom leverages all the key company assets in a collaborative manner, Telkom has been able to achieve infrastructure modernization and digital innovation. The company restructured cost bases while protecting quality. Affordable packages became instruments of inclusion rather than markers of austerity. Digital innovation, in this model, is not flashy experimentation; instead, it is disciplined execution. This process includes products that are refined through collaboration and strengthened by ecosystem partnerships. In order to enable this level of customer understanding, Telkom has relied on Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Telkom has positioned AI at the heart of its operations. AI-powered platforms are already analysing customer interactions and enabling faster issue resolution through intelligent contact centres and automation systems.
This shifts Telkom from a reactive telecommunications service provider to aproactive one. AI is being deployed across front and back office environments to personalise customer engagement by predicting service faults, automating support processes, and improving service quality at scale. For example, AI systems process tens of thousands of call-centre interactions monthly to improve response quality while lowering service costs. One of Telkom’s most significant moves is building South Africa’s AI economy, not just using AI internally. Through Telkom FutureMakers, the company launched the AI Catalyst Growth Programme (2026) — a fully funded accelerator helping Black-owned ICT startups adopt and scale AI solutions.
The programme provides:
The goal is to ensure local startups participate meaningfully in the AI economy rather than remain technology consumers. This positions Telkom as an AI enabler, not only a network provider.
Simo Mkhize - Chief Commercial Officer at Telkom Consumer and Wesley Diphoko, Editor-in-Chief of Fast Company South Africa
Image: Supplied
The Long Arc of Reinvention
Corporate survival stories often hinge on technological breakthroughs. Telkom’s renaissance, however, is less about a single invention than about cultural reengineering. It required leaders comfortable with ambiguity — engineers who understood marketing, marketers who are fluent in data analysis, executives who value empathy as much as efficiency. Mkhize’s career, which spans engineering, commercial strategy, and academia, reflects that hybrid fluency. Thirty years ago, few predicted Telkom’s survival. Today, it anchors South Africa’s digital economy. The copper wires have given way to fibre, mobile integration, and digital services. The bureaucracy has given way to analytics. The monopoly mindset has given way to competitive humility. Studies have shown that transformation is rarely sudden. It emerges from small decisions compounded over time by leaders who align personal philosophy with institutional change. Telkom’s story suggests something similar. In the end, its revival was not about resisting technological change. It was about embracing it and ensuring that in the rush toward the future, no one is left standing at the edge of the network, disconnected.
