a reading of Vodacom Group's 2026 financial results It shows that its home market is barely growing in terms of customers, that top-line growth there depended heavily on price adjustments in February rather than volume growth, and that profitability would have looked materially worse without the one-time accounting gain. Maziv Fiber Transaction.
Services revenue in South Africa rose 2.1% to R64.4-billion by March 31, 2026, well below inflation. Ebitda – a measure of operating profit – fell 1.7% to R33-billion, which Vodacom described as a one-off disposal cost in the first half.
The cost was not disclosed, but the same announcement separately confirmed a long-running “please call me” dispute with a former Vodacom employee. Nkosana Makate Was thrown out of court on 4 November 2025.
Reported operating profit was effectively flat at R20.5 billion (down 0.2%). On a normalized basis – removing the impact of the Maziv transaction, which Vodacom said includes a book gain of R1.1 billion on the disposal of fiber assets in December 2025 – operating profit fell 7.1%. The normalized figure still includes the impact of the one-time settlement charge raised in the first half; Vodacom did not disclose what the underlying drop would be from removing that cost.
The subscriber numbers underline how much underlying growth has slowed down:
- Vodacom's South African contract base ended the year at seven million, an increase of just 28,000 customers – an increase of 0.4%.
- Prepaid subscribers, which form the bulk of the South African base at 39.1 million, also increased by 0.4%.
- Data customers – those who generate billable mobile data traffic each month – actually declined by 4.3% to 26.5 million, which Vodacom attributed to seasonal offers increasing consolidation on primary SIMs.
Prepaid mobile subscriber revenues declined 2.1% for the year, although the decline moderated in the second half and 1.6% in the fourth quarter. Mobile contract customer revenue grew 3.5%, average revenue per user rose 3.3% – almost entirely a function of price rather than upgrades or net additions.
In the fourth quarter, contract revenue growth increased to 4.1% due to price adjustments through February 2026. This is Vodacom's main leverage in a saturated market, but it is difficult to maximize in a highly competitive industry.
Data traffic increased by 32.1% and average consumption per smart device increased by 24.6% to 6.3 GB/month, although voice revenues continued to decline. Monetizing data traffic at a pace that grows the top line before inflation is proving elusive.
structural strain
The Maziv deal also had a meaningful impact on South African operating results. Vodacom South Africa contributed fiber assets and cash worth R12.6 billion to the new fiber vehicle in exchange for a 30% stake in December 2025. Fair value appreciation on contributed assets resulted in a gain of R1.1 billion which flowed through to the income statement.
Structural pressures on the local mobile business – competitive intensity, weak consumer spending and prepaid pressures – were masked by Maze accounting profit and value-led contract growth at the level reported in the last quarter.
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“Beyond mobile” services were the real growth story in local business. The category – which includes fixed line (fibre), financial services, digital services and the Internet of Things – grew 6.8% to R12-billion, contributing 18.7% to South African services revenues. Vodacom business services revenue rose 6.2% to R17.9 billion, with cloud, hosting and security up 27.1%. Financial services revenues rose 8.1% to R3.7 billion, helped by insurance and merchant services.
These segments are no longer consumer mobile, but a growth story. Vodacom is guiding for capital expenditure of R12 billion in South Africa in the 2027 financial year, broadly stable on the R11.9 billion invested in the year just ended.
So, what is South African business now? From a growth perspective, the answer increasingly appears to be enterprise and fintech businesses.
Asked how important the enterprise segment will become in the coming years, Joosub told TechCentral in an interview on Monday that growth in the Vodacom business is coming from fixed services, cloud hosting and security and the Internet of Things (IoT).
“Overall fixed revenue for both consumer and enterprise is up 8%, but also cloud, hosting and security, which is up 27%, and IoT, which is up about 10%,” he said. “Diversification of what I call ‘beyond core services’ is playing a big role in increasing enterprise revenues.”
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Josub said this segment will become increasingly important as AI and cloud adoption accelerates. “We want to be well-positioned on the one hand to provide connectivity – be it mobile, fixed or satellite – and on the other hand to be able to provide the additional services that enterprises, from small businesses to large businesses, require.”
On a question about whether Vodacom would enhance its enterprise capabilities through acquisitions, Joosub said the group was open to bolt-on deals, but was wary of scale-driven deals that failed to add profit. – (c) 2026 NewsCentral Media
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