Vodacom celebrates excellence at gala dinner

Vodacom’s place at the forefront of worldwide digital development and the way that this can change people’s lives was the theme at Vodacom Limpopo’s Enterprise Business Unit (EBU) Gala Dinner that was held in Polokwane last Tursday.
After Executive Head of Department CBU, EBU and Marketing for Vodacom Limpopo Qiniso Nyathi and Regional Managing Executive Chris Lazarus welcomed guests and gave a short overview of the incredible inroads that Vodacom Limpopo has made in the province. Lazarus also spoke about the unique challenges faced by Vodacom Limpopo and how they intended to use innovation to address these issues.
Ben Mphahlele, Managing Director of the Limpopo Economic Development Agency (Leda) addressed the guests and emphasised the importance of planning all aspects of economic development, building partnerships between the business sector and government, and working on not being dependent on the technology of other countries.
“Government and privately owned business have to develop South Africa’s own state of the art technology and innovations in order to compete with the rest of the world on equal footing,” he said.
The main speaker of the evening was Vodacom’s EBU Chief Officer, Vuyani Jarana who explained how Vodacom was constantly working towards digitalisation to all corners of Africa, including Limpopo and how this development will impact people’s lives.
Jarana explained how Vodacom had developed specialised solutions for specialised problems unique to Africa by utilising the technology they had at hand and rolling out these solutions to areas most in need. Vodacom had developed these digital solutions for the agicultural, medical, education and environmental fields.
He explained how they realised that newborn babies in rural areas often died because midwives induced labour to save the mothers’ lives when issues like pre-enclampsia presented in pregnancies. “The problem was that the midwives had no idea how old the foetus was, because the patients’ records were often not accessible to them, especially when the mothers went to another hospital or clinic than their usual place of health care when they suddenly experienced problems. Vodacom developed and equipped more than 3 000 hospitals and clinics in South Africa with secure technology that would enable midwives and other medical professionals to access medical records online. This one innovation has proven to save hundreds of babies and mothers’ lives,” he explained the incredible impact that technology can have on people’s lives.
“We can build a more sustainable future by delivering products and services, not limited to the telecommunications industry, that enable positive social, economic and environmental outcomes.”

Story & Photo: Marki Franken- Attending the Vodacom Limpopo EBU Gala Dinner are Qiniso Nyathi, Executive Head of CBU, EBU and Marketing, Beauty Mutheiwana: Acting Head of Department of Education, and Vuyani Jarana, Chief Officer of the Enterprise Business Unit, in front. At the back are Ishmael Mathinya, Executive Head of Operations, Tshepo Letsie, Managing Executive Public Sector, Ben Mphahlele, Managing Director of Leda, Chris Lazarus, Managing Executive Limpopo Region, and Chris Roos, Managing Executive Products and Services.