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Sifiso Dabengwa to be buried in South Africa
04 Sep 2024 at 15:09hrs | Views
Zimbabwean-born South African corporate executive Raymond Sifiso Dabengwa, former CEO of MTN Group and Eskom board member, will be laid to rest in Johannesburg on Saturday. Dabengwa, 66, passed away on Sunday morning after battling colon cancer.
According to the memorial and funeral service programme, Dabengwa will be buried at Fourways Memorial Park in Johannesburg at 10 a.m. on Saturday. A memorial service will be held at Rosebank Catholic Church on Friday, with prayers at his home in Sandhurst, Sandton.
Dabengwa, the brother of the late Zimbabwean liberation struggle figure and former Zipra intelligence chief Dumiso Dabengwa, was married to Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa, a leading South African corporate executive and currently the CEO of Naspers South Africa. She was also the co-founder and CEO of Sigma Capital and previously led Shanduka Group.
In African culture, Dumiso and Sifiso Dabengwa were considered brothers, though they were cousins by Western standards, as their fathers were brothers. Dabengwa was also close to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who had previously chaired MTN's board during his corporate career. Ramaphosa founded Shanduka Group, where Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa also worked.
Born in Zimbabwe on 5 April 1958, Dabengwa grew up and attended school in Zimbabwe before graduating from the University of Zimbabwe with a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering. He later earned an MBA from Wits Business School in Johannesburg and participated in Extended Degree Programmes aimed at addressing systemic barriers to equity and student success.
Before moving to South Africa in the late 1970s, Dabengwa worked as a trainee at British Rail and later at Rhodesia Railways (now National Railways of Zimbabwe). He then joined a South African consulting engineering firm based in Pretoria, working on projects in Botswana, Swaziland (now Eswatini), and the former apartheid-era bantustan of Bophuthatswana.
Dabengwa later spent many years at South African power utility Eskom, where he played a significant role in the planning and implementation of the national electrification programme, one of the most successful projects under the Reconstruction and Development Plan. He managed a multibillion-rand budget in a division employing 17,000 people and generating revenues exceeding R20 billion annually (approximately US$2.5 billion at the time). His efforts helped increase electricity access in South African households from 35% in 1990 to 84% in 2011.
After his tenure at Eskom, Dabengwa joined MTN, Africa's largest telecoms company, where he held several positions before becoming President and CEO from 31 March 2011 to 9 November 2015. Dabengwa resigned in 2015 after MTN's Nigerian operation was fined US$5.2 billion by regulators for failing to deactivate more than five million unregistered SIM cards. The fine was later reduced to US$3.9 billion, and Dabengwa received a R23.7 million severance package.
Dabengwa also served on numerous corporate boards, including Impala Platinum Holdings, Dawn Suite Hotel Group, Peermont Global, and Gijima Group Limited, among others.
According to the memorial and funeral service programme, Dabengwa will be buried at Fourways Memorial Park in Johannesburg at 10 a.m. on Saturday. A memorial service will be held at Rosebank Catholic Church on Friday, with prayers at his home in Sandhurst, Sandton.
Dabengwa, the brother of the late Zimbabwean liberation struggle figure and former Zipra intelligence chief Dumiso Dabengwa, was married to Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa, a leading South African corporate executive and currently the CEO of Naspers South Africa. She was also the co-founder and CEO of Sigma Capital and previously led Shanduka Group.
In African culture, Dumiso and Sifiso Dabengwa were considered brothers, though they were cousins by Western standards, as their fathers were brothers. Dabengwa was also close to South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who had previously chaired MTN's board during his corporate career. Ramaphosa founded Shanduka Group, where Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa also worked.
Born in Zimbabwe on 5 April 1958, Dabengwa grew up and attended school in Zimbabwe before graduating from the University of Zimbabwe with a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering. He later earned an MBA from Wits Business School in Johannesburg and participated in Extended Degree Programmes aimed at addressing systemic barriers to equity and student success.
Before moving to South Africa in the late 1970s, Dabengwa worked as a trainee at British Rail and later at Rhodesia Railways (now National Railways of Zimbabwe). He then joined a South African consulting engineering firm based in Pretoria, working on projects in Botswana, Swaziland (now Eswatini), and the former apartheid-era bantustan of Bophuthatswana.
Dabengwa later spent many years at South African power utility Eskom, where he played a significant role in the planning and implementation of the national electrification programme, one of the most successful projects under the Reconstruction and Development Plan. He managed a multibillion-rand budget in a division employing 17,000 people and generating revenues exceeding R20 billion annually (approximately US$2.5 billion at the time). His efforts helped increase electricity access in South African households from 35% in 1990 to 84% in 2011.
After his tenure at Eskom, Dabengwa joined MTN, Africa's largest telecoms company, where he held several positions before becoming President and CEO from 31 March 2011 to 9 November 2015. Dabengwa resigned in 2015 after MTN's Nigerian operation was fined US$5.2 billion by regulators for failing to deactivate more than five million unregistered SIM cards. The fine was later reduced to US$3.9 billion, and Dabengwa received a R23.7 million severance package.
Dabengwa also served on numerous corporate boards, including Impala Platinum Holdings, Dawn Suite Hotel Group, Peermont Global, and Gijima Group Limited, among others.
Source - online
