The man in charge of two of South Africa’s largest ISPs

Sean Nourse has spent nearly two and a half decades working for some of the most respected names in the world of South African broadband and now heads two of the country’s largest service providers. 

Nourse is currently the CEO of Webafrica, an Internet service provider (ISP) that acquired Mweb, a business he had previously headed, in 2020.

However, the journey that led to him leading two major South African ISPs started in 2002 when he joined Internet Solutions.

After matriculating from Wordsworth High School in 1994 and obtaining a Bachelor of Science in industrial engineering in 1999, he joined Internet Solutions.

While The Internetworking Company of South Africa (Ticsa) was the country’s first ISP, Internet Solutions is credited with commercialising Internet access in South Africa.

Founded in 1993 by Ronnie Apteker, David Frankel, Phillip Green, and Thomas McWalter, Internet Solutions offered connectivity to large companies in South Africa.

It eventually landed Price Forbes, now Alexforbes, as a client and serves several other major corporations in the public and private sectors today, such as Sun International, BP, and Bidvest.

By the time Nourse joined as a hosting product manager in 2002, Dimension Data Group had wholly acquired Internet Solutions, buying 25% in 1996 and 75% the following year.

Nourse remained at Internet Solutions for another 15 years, occupying positions such as hosting business unit manager, the general manager of managed services, and executive of connectivity services.

After just over 11 years at the company, he was appointed Chief Solutions Officer of Internet Solutions, a position he held until October 2017.

Dimension Data’s acquisition of Mweb’s consumer ISP from Naspers for roughly R130 million that year marked the end of Nourse’s career within Internet Solutions, as he was appointed the ISP’s new CEO. 

The acquisition came after Dimension Data bought Mweb Business for R368 million in 2014.

The Webafrica transition

After a three-year stint at the helm of Mweb, Nourse replaced Tim Wyatt-Gunning as CEO of Webafrica, an ISP that was put up for sale just the year before.

Wyatt-Gunning had been in charge since he took the reins from Webafrica founder Matthew Tagg, who had been running the company since its inception in 1997.

“We have known Nourse for many years from when we entrusted our network to Internet Solutions in 2012,” said Wyatt-Gunning in 2020.

“We know he fits our brand perfectly, and we can’t wait to get him on board. He is fresh with new ideas and a strong strategic vision.”

Nourse’s appointment came after the ISP migrated from Internet Solutions to its own infrastructure provider in partnership with several parties, including Echo Service Provider.

However, it would not be long before Mweb came back into the picture as Webafrica announced that Dimension Data had accepted an offer to sell it in 2023.

While the transaction’s value was not disclosed, Webafrica said it used its balance sheet to fund the acquisition.

“Mweb is the largest fibre-to-the-home Internet service provider in the market, and it accelerates our growth,” Nourse said at the time.

“It gives us the growth to continue to be successful and the scale and synergies to reinvest into the business.”

Dimension Data CEO, Alan Turnley-Jones, explained that the company was looking to integrate with its global shareholder NTT, and that “refining its portfolio of services” would help it to do so.

A year later, Webafrica and Mweb merged their operations. However, they were not incorporated into a single brand.

Fast-forward to 2025, and Webafrica and Mweb have over 500,000 customers between them. Nourse, still at the helm, aims to accumulate over 1 million by 2027.