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Cell C appoints new chief commercial officer

Sibahle Malinga
By Sibahle Malinga, ITWeb senior news journalist.
Johannesburg, 06 Apr 2020
Cell C has appointed Simo Mkhize as its chief commercial officer.
Cell C has appointed Simo Mkhize as its chief commercial officer.

Cell C has appointed Simo Mkhize as its chief commercial officer from 1 April.

Mkhize re-joins Cell C from MTN SA, having spent the last 13 years in various commercial executive roles in sales and distribution, consumer marketing and enterprise business in SA’s major operators.

Mkhize, who took over from Junaid Munshi, is responsible for designing and developing the sales and marketing strategy, and customising new products, pricing models as well as managing overall customer satisfaction to drive revenue growth of the embattled mobile operator.

His 23-year career in the telecoms industry spans SA, Europe and the rest of Africa, encompassing extensive technical and commercial experience in organisations such as Cisco, Vodacom and MTN SA, according to a statement from Cell C.

Cell C CEO Douglas Craigie Stevenson says: “I believe the commercial team will play a critical role in delivering on our customer-first approach and driving future growth; and I look forward to Simo contributing to the management team and our ambitions going forward. Simo’s appointment will further complement the new capable and experienced leadership team that is being assembled in Cell C.”

He holds an MBA from Milpark Business School, a post-graduate diploma in telecoms from BPI College, Austria and a BSc (Electrical Engineering) degree from the University of the Witwatersrand.

Mkhize has lectured at Milpark Business School and guest lectured executive education and MBA students at the Gordon Institute of Business Science.

Cell C has been enduring a bleak time because of its debt woes as well as lack of capital, which analysts warned is a toxic cocktail, which may lead to total collapse of the telco.

In its latest earnings report, the telco said it lost 2.9 million subscribers for the year ended December, but noted the margin of its existing customers is better as a result of acquiring profitable customers.

Cell C also posted further losses for the period under review, declaring a loss of R3.94 billion compared to a R7.36 billion loss in 2018.

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