Vodacom Group has announced a major boardroom shake-up. The South African telecoms giant is naming Khumo Shuenyane as its next chairman. At the same time, it is bringing former Airtel Africa boss Segun Ogunsanya onto the board.
The company confirmed the changes on Wednesday. Shuenyane currently serves as lead independent director. He will officially take over as chair on 21 July 2027.
He steps into the role after the retirement of longtime chairman Saki Macozoma. Macozoma has led the board since July 2017. His exit follows Vodacom’s self-imposed 10-year tenure limit for board members. The policy is meant to keep leadership fresh.
Shuenyane brings a strong finance and telecoms background to the job. He spent over 15 years in telecommunications. That includes six years as Group Chief Mergers and Acquisitions Officer at MTN Group, where he also sat on the executive committee.
His resume also includes senior advisory roles at Delta Partners, a Dubai-based advisory firm. He spent nearly a decade at Investec Bank in corporate finance and principal investments. Today, he serves as a non-executive director at asset manager Ninety One. He previously chaired Investec Bank Limited as well.
However, the more eye-catching move is Ogunsanya’s appointment. He will officially join Vodacom’s board on 9 October 2026.
Ogunsanya is a familiar name in African telecoms. He served as Group CEO of Airtel Africa from October 2021 until his retirement in July 2024. That capped off twelve years at the operator. For nine of those years, he ran Airtel’s Nigerian business, the company’s largest and most profitable market. Vodacom, notably, has never broken into that market at scale.
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Airtel Africa now serves close to 190 million customers across 14 countries. It remains a direct rival to Vodacom in markets like Tanzania, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Mozambique. So Ogunsanya’s arrival on Vodacom’s board is significant. Industry watchers will likely be curious to see how his insider knowledge shapes Vodacom’s next moves.
Ogunsanya is filling the seat vacated by Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa, CEO of Naspers South Africa. She steps down from Vodacom’s board on 8 October 2026, after roughly seven and a half years of service. Vodacom did not give a specific reason for her departure.
The reshuffle doesn’t stop there, though. Clive Thomson, the former Barloworld CEO, will take over as chairman of the Remuneration Committee from 9 October 2026. He will also continue as chairman of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee.
In its statement, Vodacom’s board thanked Macozoma for steering the company through a transformational decade. The board credited him with rolling out the Vision 2025 strategy and laying the groundwork for the newer Vision 2030 plan.
Overall, these changes signal something bigger. With Shuenyane’s dealmaking pedigree and Ogunsanya’s rival-side telecoms experience now both feeding into the boardroom, Vodacom appears to be positioning itself for its next growth phase across Africa’s competitive mobile and fintech landscape.
