T-Systems welcomes Wayde van Niekerk home with R1 million gift

Issued by Evolution PR for T-Systems
Johannesburg, 08 Sep 2016

Wayde and Gert at Homecoming.

In celebration of his spectacular performance at the 2016 Rio Olympics, T-Systems today presented athletics superstar Wayde van Niekerk with a R1 million gift.

"It's our gesture of thanks, honouring Wayde for the way he's inspired millions of South Africans to believe in their own dreams and chase after success," notes Mpumi Nhlapo, Head of T-Systems South Africa's Marketing, Communications, IT Portfolio and Solution Sales.

Van Niekerk powered his way into South African hearts, and into the history books, with the event's highlight moment. Running in the most difficult lane in the 400 metres final, he won Gold and set a new world record time of 43.03 seconds.

Now firmly established as a local hero, his partnership with T-Systems extends back to well before the Olympics began. "The similarities between Wayde's disruptive approach to athletics, and our disruptive approach to business transformation, have always been clearly evident," Nhlapo adds.

"Wayde's achievements reflect our vision to change the established rules of how businesses operate. We're committed to helping our clients achieve success that they never thought were possible - in the same way that the pundits never thought it was possible for someone to smash the world record from lane 8."

Nhlapo further mentions that Van Niekerk's success was graciously celebrated by Bayern Munich Football Club who presented him with a signed team jersey in celebration of this significant milestone of his journey as an esteemed athlete.

For fans to continue following Van Niekerk as he competes in events around the world, T-Systems recently launched the Wayde's World portal and social media channels. It features exclusive news, photos and videos from both his athletic and his philanthropic endeavours. In just a few weeks, the Wayde's World Facebook fan page has attracted over 40 000 fans - testimony to our nation's pride in the athlete.

"Wayde is famous for his balanced approach to his profession, and to his life in general," explains Nhlapo, "with a dedication to three core areas of spirituality, physical well-being, and the family and community aspects."

"As a family-focused, community-oriented organisation, this holistic approach resonated without our values of giving back to the communities in which we operate, via our multitude of development programmes."

Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom is one of the world's leading integrated telecommunications companies with around 151 million mobile customers, 30 million fixed-network lines and more than 17 million broadband lines (as of 31 December 2014). The group provides fixed network, mobile communications, Internet and IPTV products and services for consumers and ICT solutions for business customers and corporate customers. Deutsche Telekom is present in more than 50 countries and has approximately 228 000 employees worldwide. The group generated revenues of EUR 62.7 billion in the 2014 financial year - more than 60% of it outside Germany.

T-Systems

Deutsche Telekom considers the European business customer segment a strategic growth area. Deutsche Telekom offers small, medium-sized and multinational companies ICT solutions for an increasingly complex digital world. In addition to services from the cloud, the range of services is centred around M2M and security solutions, complementary mobile communications and fixed network products, and solutions for virtual collaboration and IT platforms, all of which forms the basis for T-Systems' customers' digital business models.

With approximately 47 800 employees worldwide, T-Systems generated revenue of around EUR 8,6 billion in the 2014 financial year.

Since the inception of T-Systems in South Africa in 1997, the company has cemented its position as one of the most successful T-Systems companies outside of Europe. A leading ICT outsourcing service provider locally, T-Systems offers end-to-end ICT solutions in both the ICT Operations and Systems Integration markets. Their extensive portfolio of services covers the vertical, horizontal, IT and TC space. T-Systems South Africa's head office is located in Midrand with another major office in Cape Town, and 20 further representative offices in locations throughout southern Africa.

Editorial contacts