{"id":630949,"date":"2026-02-27T11:00:52","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T09:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=630949"},"modified":"2026-02-27T11:01:35","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T09:01:35","slug":"the-man-who-saved-south-africas-oldest-telecoms-company-from-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/business-telecoms\/630949-the-man-who-saved-south-africas-oldest-telecoms-company-from-disaster.html","title":{"rendered":"The man who saved South Africa’s oldest telecoms company from disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Serame Taukobong took on the role of Telkom Group CEO during a difficult time for the company. However, he has helped improve the telco’s finances and made it attractive to investors again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taukobong was appointed Telkom Group CEO in 2022, and while the company’s share price continued to decline for several years under his leadership, it has achieved a remarkable comeback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following a series of poor decisions by previous chief executives, Telkom’s share price plummeted by 75% between June 2019 and June 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, Taukobong’s leadership and the adoption of Telkom’s data-led strategy have led to a substantial recovery in the share price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you consider its gains from July 2024, Telkom’s share price increased by approximately 169%, from R23.61 at the end of July 2024 to R63.41 as of 26 February 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moreover, the financial turnaround led the company to resume paying dividends after approximately four years, making its shares more attractive to investors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Telkom declared a R2.61 per share dividend, comprising an ordinary dividend of R1.63 and a special dividend of R0.98 in its annual results for the 2025 financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taukobong was born in Soweto, Johannesburg, in May 1970, and he attended Molatladi Lower Primary before moving to Marist Brothers Sacred Heart and eventually Marist Brothers St Henry’s in Durban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After completing matric, he enrolled to study a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Cape Town in 1989, from which he graduated in 1992.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following his graduation, he secured a job as a lab assistant at the Genref Refinery in Durban. However, a lab supervisor soon told him he was wasting his potential at the refinery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The supervisor encouraged him to get a commercial job, and that advice proved to be a decisive moment in Taukobong’s career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He secured a position as a marketing manager at Lever Brothers (now Unilever). He rapidly climbed the ranks before joining South African Breweries, where he took on the role of marketing manager.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Entering telecoms<\/h2>\n\n\n\nSerame Taukobong, Telkom Group CEO<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Taukobong’s career path shifted drastically in the early 2000s. In October 2023, he was appointed chief operations officer at MTN Uganda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the role, he was responsible for marketing, direct and indirect sales, customer operations, billing, logistics and distribution, and the billing and project office. He left the role in December 2005.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taukobong remained with the MTN Group for many years. After departing MTN Uganda, he joined MTN Irancell as a sales and distribution executive in January 2006.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He remained at MTN Irancell for just over a year and left in February 2007 to join MTN’s business in his home country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taukobong began as MTN South Africa’s chief marketing officer in May 2009, responsible for driving the business’s marketing and strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He remained in the position for four years and four months, departing MTN South Africa in August 2013 to join MTN Ghana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Taukobong was appointed CEO of MTN Ghana in August 2013, based in Accra, and remained in the leadership position for just over two years before departing in 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has received several accolades for his work in the telecoms industry, including Ghana CEO of the year in 2014 and Sunday Times Marketeer of the Year in 2010 and 2012.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After leaving MTN Ghana, Taukobong spent three years at General Electric as its Sub-Saharan lead and head of transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In July 2018, he joined the Telkom Group. Taukobong was appointed to head Telkom’s consumer and small business division.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While in the role, one of his key contributions was achieving significant growth in Telkom’s mobile segment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After just three years with Telkom, he was appointed as the Telkom Group CEO designate in 2021 and officially took over from former CEO Sipho Maseko in July 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Driving a data-led strategy and securing a R33-million payday<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Under Taukobong’s leadership, Telkom implemented a data-led strategy, which it says has been key to its turnaround and is helping it drive solid performances in its mobile and fibre segments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We have been seeing the strong growth of fibre and mobile data revenue for several reporting periods now, reaffirming the strength of this strategy,” Telkom recently told MyBroadband.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Furthermore, the focus on operational initiatives across the Group, has resulted in our total costs being flat for year-to-date, for the nine-months ended 31 December 2025.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It said key contributors to its recent success are the migration away from legacy voice and copper services to high-growth platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“The consistent performance of our Mobile and Openserve businesses has provided a strong backbone for Telkom Group,” Telkom said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Looking forward, Telkom is committed to the continued execution of its data-led strategy and is committed to delivering on its medium-term objectives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This includes continued investment in mobile and fibre networks, expanding coverage in underserved and under-indexed regions, and driving digital inclusion,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Telkom’s latest integrated report revealed that Taukobong’s strong performance had earned him R33 million in remuneration for the 2025 financial year. His package was as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This shows that most of his remuneration came from short-term and long-term incentives \u2014 payouts based on performance targets approved by the company’s shareholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Telkom’s largest shareholder is the South African government, which holds a 40.5% direct stake, with a further 10.37% held through the state-owned Public Investment Corporation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Serame Taukobong’s leadership has seen Telkom’s share price rebound remarkably in the past few years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":631055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41906],"tags":[1355,109,45547],"class_list":["post-630949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-telecoms","tag-serame-taukobong","tag-telkom","tag-telkom-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630949"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630949"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":631169,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630949\/revisions\/631169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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