South Africa claims the right to pick Safaricom’s next CEO

On Techpoint Digest, we discuss how South Africa claims the right to choose Safaricom's next CEO, how panic buttons are now legal for Uber and Bolt in South Africa, and how Uber is looking for a courier licence as it expands into Kenyan logistics.

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Victoria from Techpoint here,

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South Africa claims the right to pick Safaricom’s next CEO

Panic buttons are now the law for Uber, Bolt in SA

Uber eyes courier licence as it pushes into Kenyan logistics

South Africa claims the right to pick Safaricom’s next CEO

Vodacom

Here’s the bombshell buried in a SEC filing: if Vodacom acquires a majority stake in Safaricom by buying the Kenyan government’s 15 percent stake, South Africa’s Vodacom will have the power to determine who becomes Safaricom’s next CEO, with the board required to pick from a shortlist of nominees provided by Vodafone Kenya Limited (VKL), the holding vehicle through which the group controls the Kenyan telco. 

This is written into a new shareholder agreement that Vodafone Group filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on May 22, 2026, triggered by the company’s dual listings in London and New York. The deal also locks in Safaricom’s full transformation into a subsidiary, meaning it will follow Vodacom’s policies on everything from financial reporting to procurement and ethics. 

In plain terms, whoever sits in the CEO chair at Safaricom’s Westlands headquarters from the next transition won’t be Kenya’s call. VKL has agreed to notify and consult with the Kenyan government before appointing or replacing a chairman or CEO and has committed to ensuring the chairman is of Kenyan nationality. So Kenya gets the ceremonial seat at the top of the board, but the real power, picking the executive who runs the company day-to-day, shifts to Johannesburg. Vodacom has also agreed to ensure most senior executives remain Kenyan, which is clearly a concession designed to soften the political blow of what is, in effect, a foreign takeover of East Africa’s most profitable company. 

Safaricom isn’t just a telco; it’s the backbone of Kenya’s economy, the home of M-Pesa, and a company whose leadership has always been intensely political. The appointment of Peter Ndegwa in 201...