{"id":871531,"date":"2026-08-22T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=871531"},"modified":"2026-08-21T17:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T15:20:07","slug":"top-south-african-exec-who-received-r41-7-million-and-wished-his-team-pain-and-hardship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/871531\/top-south-african-exec-who-received-r41-7-million-and-wished-his-team-pain-and-hardship\/","title":{"rendered":"Top South African exec who received R41.7 million and wished his team pain and hardship"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Charles Molapisi, one of the highest-paid chief technology and information officers on the African continent, received total remuneration of R41.795 million from MTN in the 2025 financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent interview, he also wished his team at MTN pain and suffering in their careers. However, he went on to explain how hardship and failure build successful people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Molapisi is the former CEO of MTN South Africa and currently serves as MTN Group\u2019s chief technology and information officer (CTIO), where he also leads the telecommunications group\u2019s artificial intelligence initiatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His R41.795 million remuneration for 2025 was substantially higher than the R26.333 million he received in 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The increase was largely driven by long-term incentives, which rose from R5.055 million in 2024 to R20.69 million in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN said the increase was primarily due to the vesting of long-term incentives and a higher share price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The share price used for the relevant vesting increased from R124.60 in the 2024 financial year to R202.20 in 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group also increased the company-performance weighting for executives to 70%, while strong overall group performance resulted in higher short-term incentive payouts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Molapisi served as CEO of MTN South Africa until November 2025 before moving into the Group CTIO role, with Ferdi Moolman succeeding him as CEO of the South African business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN noted that \u201cCharles and Ferdi\u2019s earnings and STI amounts reflect only the periods during which they served as prescribed officers in FY 2025 and do not represent a full financial year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His base salary and short-term incentives, therefore, covered only 10 months as a prescribed officer during the financial year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For 2026, his annualised base salary was increased by 3.7%, from R11.484 million to R11.909 million, with MTN saying the increase was linked to inflation in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Molapisi’s move into the CTIO position came as MTN restructured its executive committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group said the changes were intended to \u201cbetter position the Group to deliver on its strategic priorities\u201d, with several portfolios consolidated and executive titles revised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unconventional view of hardship and failure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite the strong group performance, MTN South Africa did not meet expectations during the period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group’s company performance against the target was 106.57%, while MTN South Africa achieved a score of 41.39%. Molapisi’s team performance outcome was 82.14%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MTN said only two South African business key performance indicators\u2014service revenue growth and customer net promoter score\u2014were above their minimum thresholds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Molapisi also failed to achieve individual strategic targets linked to revenue market share, and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) uplift at MTN South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Molapisi was born and raised in Rankaile, where he attended both primary and high school. He has credited his upbringing and the support of his community, particularly his mother, with helping shape his character.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was fortunate that I had a community growing up in a village\u2014a community which was unified and had a nice cohesion that was able to help us, and uncles who assisted me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His early education also left a lasting impression. One teacher taught him from Grade 3 to Grade 6 and repeatedly reinforced the belief that he could achieve more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBecause of the way he drummed home the message of how he believed in me and what I could become, I still draw inspiration from that even today as a Group CTIO,\u201d Molapisi said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After school, he studied for a Bachelor of Commerce at the University of the Witwatersrand, initially intending to specialise in marketing and information systems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During his studies, the financial services company Liberty Life offered to sponsor his university education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Molapisi has since sought to give back to the community where his career began. He launched a BackaBuddy campaign to help build a digital laboratory at Rankaile Primary School and raised R142,000 over 10 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a recent interview on the SMWX podcast<\/a> with Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh, Molapisi also explained his unconventional view of hardship and failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy team thinks I\u2019m funny when I say that I wish them pain and suffering, because I\u2019m pretty much like many of us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think many excellent people, people who have done very well, are products of pain, failure, and hardship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Molapisi said achieving major things in life is generally difficult, which he believes helps explain why relatively few people achieve exceptional results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/th>FY 2025 (10 Months in Service)<\/th>FY 2024 (12 Months in Service)<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Salary<\/strong><\/td>R7 873<\/td>R9 630<\/td><\/tr>
Post-employment benefits<\/strong><\/td>R1 269<\/td>R1 027<\/td><\/tr>
Other benefits<\/strong><\/td>R713<\/td>R819<\/td><\/tr>
Total Cost of Employment (TCE)<\/strong><\/td>R9 855<\/strong><\/td>R11 476<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
Short-term Incentive (STI)<\/strong><\/td>R11 250<\/td>R9 802<\/td><\/tr>
Long-term Incentive (LTI) Vesting<\/strong><\/td>R20 690<\/td>R5 055<\/td><\/tr>
Qualifying Dividends<\/strong><\/td>R0<\/td>R0<\/td><\/tr>
Total Earned Remuneration<\/strong><\/td>R41 795<\/strong><\/td>R26 333<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the highest-paid CTIOs on the African continent received total remuneration of R41.795 million from MTN in the 2025 financial year. In a recent interview, he also wished his team pain and suffering in their careers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":871614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2091178853917966446","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2183574419129624","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17915925264436580","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[28,853],"class_list":["post-871531","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecommunications","tag-mtn","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871531","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871531"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871531\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":871615,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871531\/revisions\/871615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871531"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871531"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871531"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}