SA`s latest black economic-empowerment (BEE) IT company African Legend Indigo, unveiled this morning to the local market, aims to span the African continent.
The company, formed by a merger between JSE-listed Datatec, which contributed its local assets, and African Legend Technologies, says it will make its presence known on the African continent and will shortly open an office in Uganda to complement its Lagos office.
Mashudu Tshivhase, who is chairperson of African Legend Technologies, says the merger will take both entities to the next level.
His vision is to have the company spanning Africa "like a spider web" and, in doing so, aid in eliminating the digital divide. A more medium-term goal is a North African office, which will close the Cape to Cairo loop.
Tshivhase`s goal is to turn ideals of an African renaissance into reality, and give voice to the concept of Africa as a whole. "It is time now for us to contribute to developing Africa as a whole."
He says the new company is empowered to take the assets that it has, build on them, and grow to the next level.
Skills crunch
The new entity has between 350 and 400 staff on the continent, which Tshivhase aims to increase.
However, growing the company and offering services such as systems integration and middleware requires more staff with a specific skills set. "It is difficult to find 'ready-made` people," he says. In the short-term, African Legend Indigo will be recruiting black staff, which it will train in these specialised skills.
Local is lekker
Datatec CEO Jens Montanana, speaking from London, says the deal is not just a case of satisfying government`s bare minimum requirements in terms of BEE. Rather, it was a situation in which Datatec teamed up with a black company that already had "great" ICT assets.
African Legend Technologies has been in SA for some time, and now has assets from a larger partner to "add to the mix". This will allow it to be a contemporary player in a market place dominated by Business Connexion and Dimension Data, he says.
He also sees deregulation in the local IT and telecoms industry as playing the vital role of being a catalyst, which will spur investment and, hopefully, add a point or two to the country`s economic output.
Montanana adds this morning`s announcement is not the last the IT industry will hear from Datatec.
It intends increasing the contribution its South African entities make to the $3.5 billion revenue line from 5% to 10%. Montanana promises the industry will hear more from him on organic and acquisitive growth.
There are already a "couple of things in the pipeline" around pan-African growth, which can now be accelerated, he concludes.
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Datatec forms R800m BEE entity
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