The group chief financial officers of Vodacom, MTN and Telkom are all women. In their latest annual reports, the three companies revealed the trio earned a combined R134 million.
The largest telecommunications companies in South Africa all appointed women as their chief financial officers and paid them a combined R134 million, according to their latest financial reports.
Together, the three oversee the financial affairs of Vodacom, MTN and Telkom, which have a combined market capitalisation of R664.44 billion.
The best-paid of the three is Vodacom Group CFO Raisibe Morathi, who earned an estimated R68.8 million in the 2026 financial year, per the group’s latest remuneration report.
Morathi, a Polokwane native, excelled academically, skipping grade 9 and earning several qualifications, including a BCom degree from the University of Venda.
A chartered accountant, she also holds a diploma in taxation from Wits, a certificate in corporate governance from the University of Johannesburg, and a Master of Philosophy in Corporate Strategy.
Her primary experience was in the banking sector, including starting as a finance consultant at Nedbank, then holding positions at HSBC Investment Bank and African Merchant Bank.
Before returning to Nedbank in 2009 as its group CFO, Morathi served as the chief executive responsible for group services at Sanlam.
She would spend a further 11 years at Nedbank before becoming the CFO of Vodacom Group on 1 November 2020. She would win several awards while in the group.
This included the Deal of the Year Award by Deal Makers, for leading the 55% acquisition of Vodafone Egypt by Vodacom Group.
Unlike Vodacom, which pulled its CFO from the private sector, both MTN and Telkom drew their top finance boss from the public sector.
Prior to her appointment as Group CFO of MTN Group, Tsholofelo Molefe was the chief financial officer of Telkom, which she joined after leaving Eskom in 2015.
Born and raised in Soweto with her five siblings, Molefe was the daughter of an Anglican minister. She attended high school at Pace College, a semi-private institution in Soweto.
Pace College focuses on commerce and entrepreneurship lessons, and was founded by renowned South African mathematician and educator Dr Thamsanqa Kambule.
Tsholofelo Molefe, MTN Group CFO
Molefe studied abroad, completing her chartered accountant qualification at the University of East London in the United Kingdom before returning to South Africa.
She quickly found herself leading from the front at high-level positions at major corporations, which she admitted became increasingly challenging for her experience level early in her career.
Her most notable career highlight before MTN may have been her tenure at Eskom. Molefe spent nine years at South Africa’s national energy utility, starting as a general finance manager.
She was promoted to group executive for customer services before becoming head of finance at Eskom, after the previous director, Paul O’Flaherty, left the company.
Molefe’s time in this position was turbulent. This was a period which she said significantly affected her personal life for the worse.
She alleged she was constantly pressured by other executives to approve financial decisions without due process, and was committed to standing her ground against suspicious payments or contracts.
This was during the height of state capture at Eskom, between 2014 and 2015 — a period where state-owned enterprises experienced systematic looting by the Gupta family and their associates.
“During my time at Eskom, there was a lot of pressure to approve certain things that I did not agree with,” she said.
“I never had any doubt about what to do. If a full board had told me to carry on with it, I would have stepped down.”
Molefe would eventually be suspended by Eskom’s then-board of directors, along with the current CEO, Dan Marokane. After leaving the utility, she joined Telkom as its deputy chief financial officer.
In 2020, she resigned from her CFO position at Telkom and was appointed as MTN’s new Group CFO. MTN Group CEO Ralph Mupita said he was thrilled to have an executive of her stature join the group.
Molefe now earns a sizeable annual remuneration package, which grew to R51.3 million for the 2025 financial year, including a guaranteed salary of R10.3 million.
Nonkululeko Dlamini, Telkom Group CFO
Of the three CFOs for Vodacom, MTN and Telkom, Nonkululeko Dlamini, the top financial executive at Telkom, has been in the position for the shortest period so far, having been appointed in 2023.
In 2026, Dlamini took home R13.6 million in total earnings. She was one of the best-compensated executives at Telkom, second only to CEO Serame Taukobong.
Telkom posted excellent financial performance for the year ended 31 March 2026, reporting a 27.5% increase in profit from R2.783 billion to R3.55 billion.
Even excluding once-off costs that would have increased profit in the previous year to R3.35 billion, Telkom’s profit in 2025/26 would have been 5.9% higher than in 2024/25.
Telkom declared an ordinary cash dividend of 270 cents per share, up 65.7% from the previous year’s 163 cents.
A chartered accountant, Dlamini has a post-graduate diploma in accounting from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and a BCom from the University of the Witwatersrand.
She was appointed CFO of Telkom in 2023, taking over from Dirk Reyneke. Before her appointment at Telkom, Dlamini served as the CFO at Transnet.
Dlamini spent the majority of her career leading the finances at public organisations in South Africa. She started at Eskom in 2001, where she held various executive positions.
In 2015, she began her tenure as the CFO of the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), a position she would hold for the next five years before starting at Transnet.
Dlamini told CFO South Africa in 2017 that public sector organisations have a duty to appoint the best people for the job.
“The public sector is doing a very important job in ensuring that development happens. It is therefore critical to groom the best of the best female, but also male employees,” she said.
“Just imagine how it would be if the public sector were functioning like the private sector at all times.”
