Andries Delport, the current CTO of the company Community Investment Ventures Holdings (CIVH), will take over as CEO of Dark Fibre Africa (DFA). The former Vodacom Group executive will assume his new role from 1 October 2021.
Delport will replace Thinus Mulder, who will formally step down as CEO of DFA on 30 September 2021. DFA is a subsidiary of ICT-focused investment-holding company CIVH.
CIVH group CEO and DFA chairman, Raymond Ndlovu, thanked Thinus for his immense contribution in overseeing DFA and the CIVH group’s growth during his tenure over the last thirteen years, first as the founding CFO at DFA and, more recently during the past five years, as DFA CEO.
Ndlovu acknowledged Mulder’s leadership in achieving the company’s stellar financial performance and the significant improvement in DFA’s Net Promoter Score in recent years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Thinus will still be available to the group until at least December 2021. His consummate knowledge of the CIVH group’s businesses and the ICT industry is an asset that CIVH will still want to draw upon,” said Ndlovu.
Delport will immediately become more involved with DFA operations during the intervening transition period.
He is no newcomer to the industry, having spent close to 25 years at the Vodacom Group, fulfilling the role of Vodacom Group Chief Technology Officer since 2011 before joining CIVH in 2020.
“Andries is an astute technical and commercial leader in the industry, and CIVH has full confidence in his capabilities and industry pedigree in leading DFA forward during this time of high-paced regulatory, technological, and commercial-market-structure changes in the environment,” added Ndlovu.
DFA is the premier open-access fibre infrastructure and connectivity provider in South Africa. DFA finance, build, install, manage, and maintain a world-class fibre network to transmit metro and long-haul telecommunications traffic. It started rolling out our fibre network in 2007, and to date, we have deployed over 14,000 km of ducting infrastructure in major metros, secondary cities, and smaller towns.