Meet Matimba Mbungela- The Chief HR Officer, Vodacom Group

MSPOTLIGHT ON
ATIMBA
BUNGELA

Chief HR Officer, VODACOM Group
Limited

What is immediately evident when you meet Matimba Mbungela is that he’s down to earth Suddenly I found myself at the bottom of the pyramid, largely because of things like the meagre
pocket money I had. Tough as it was, I managed to complete high school at the age of fifteen.”
and without any airs and graces. The Chief Human Resource Officer of Vodacom Group, Africa’s
largest Telco, still considers himself a deep rural boy, despite having had opportunities to live Although Matimba’s initial love was for medicine, he did not excel in some of the related subjects
and grow in different countries and now works in the city. so he changed course and ended up enrolling for a Bachelor of Administration at a “small
university” called the University of Venda. At the time, he had no idea that he had a real phobia
“I was born and raised in one of the smallest villages in South Africa, with literally nothing much for blood, he says, attributing his situation in part to the lack of career coaching and guidance.
going. I grew up as a villager with very little in front of us, herding goats as a youngster and going
to fetch water from the river – all those things that rural people do,” he says. “Mom had just enough money to take me to the first year of varsity from the shebeen business
because my other brother was already studying law at the same university. Whilst being the first
Matimba is quick to add that he has been somewhat fortunate in the sense that his mother was kids in our village to go to university was a significant accolade then, she didn’t have enough
a primary school teacher and that was an enabler to achieving better things in life through a money to fully fund both of us and had just enough saved for my first year.
deliberate investment in education.
Without any additional financial support, he would have had to drop out and "wait for my other
Growing up, he looked up to his two elder brothers and especially his mother, who tried to open brother to finish his degree first”.
a range of opportunities for the family under challenging circumstances and made sure her
children focused on education to secure a better future. But the 16-year-old boy would not succumb to a dire situation; he was determined to work hard
to get a scholarship and a bursary.
“Both parents have passed on now, but my family was seen as a success story in the village with
my dad having been a bus driver and my mother as a teacher. This meant that whilst things were
difficult and that we lived in poverty, we were relatively okay compared to many other families,”
he said.

But that all changed when his father died when he was only eight years old. “I suppose I became
an adult at the age of eight because we had to wake up to the realities of having to dig deep to
survive in many ways. So, that’s a little bit about my history, and as a result, I’m self-reliant in
many things. It’s toughened me up in life,” he said.

Matimba acknowledges his mother as the source of his entrepreneurial spirit because for them
to survive, she had to set up a “shebeen” which was an illegal establishment to sell alcohol in
those days. “Our shebeen was the centre of some vibe at our village. Even though we used a
paraffin powered fridge to store the beer, we were selling; this proved to be a very successful
venture because through this set up our mom managed to generate some money to get us
through high school.”

His mother, whose main focus was on education, decided to “ship” her children to what was
then a “excellent boarding school”- Kheto Nxumayo High School in Giyani - about three hundred
kilometres away from their village home. Although it was during apartheid South Africa, that
school had some of the brightest kids in what is now known as Limpopo. “Attending boarding
school shaped my life a lot because I was at a place where most of the other students were ahead
of me

Happily, his efforts yielded fruitful results as at the end of the academic year; he obtained “Those were particularly challenging times," he says, "and where I worked was in a very conservative
exceptional results, including three distinctions, which earned him a government bursary. town. Needless to say, I didn’t enjoy my stay there”

“In a way, that’s how I managed to get into HR because Government was offering bursaries for “It was during that time when I saw an advert from a search agency in the newspaper calling for
top BA students and I happened to be one of them." Having obtained his first degree at the Graduate trainees. When I contacted them they said 'yes, you’re the kind of person we’re looking for,
age of eighteen, he was then plunged into work in order to repay the bursary.“When I started someone young with limited experience'. Unilever’s graduate programme at the time only recruited
working in 1991, I was placed in the HR department – then called the Personnel Department - graduates directly from university, but I think they wanted to grow their impact by also getting people
so that’s where I got my first taste of HR," Matimba added. with some work experience. Ultimately this enhanced my journey through Unilever and ending up
with my first job in management.”
He worked for two years in
Government but decided to return “I worked for Unilever for close on five years, but I think I did my bit by making some significant
to school to pursue a Post- impact in the business,” he says.
graduate Diploma in HR at the
University of Cape Town (UCT) Having worked for Unilever for close on five years and during which he made a significant impact on
once he started “getting bored”. the business, Matimba moved on to BMW in search of greener pastures. It was another role that
required a great deal of union engagement at a time when management and union relationships in
“I finished in 1993, which was the South Africa were largely combative in nature. It was also a stage when workers increasingly wanted
time when massive change was to be heard.
happening in the country,
transitioning from apartheid to "I had been quite active in student politics when I was doing my junior degree, so in a way, I
democracy. In 1994, I secured a understood where the union movement came from. Remember that the union movement in South
project to work in Government Africa was fundamental in driving change in the country as one of the key pillars of the anti-apartheid
again, but left to join the private struggle. I had a deep understanding of what the impact of civil society was in driving that change
sector after about six months.” and why you couldn’t discount the union as a partner in effecting change at the workplace,” Matimba
adds.
His first job in the private sector was with a paper company. He says he felt like he was part of
an experiment as he was the first graduate in that particular factory. It was this approach that led to Matimba securing a settlement with the paper industry union in
record time when he chaired an annual wage negotiation for his previous employer.
"Firstly, they didn’t respect my capabilities, and secondly, they just didn’t know what to do with
me. So I was given an employee relations role, which was interesting as it meant I had to deal "If you want to succeed, you must build a successful partnership in the workplace with unions,
with the union. I decided to use a different engagement strategy in terms of being able to help engaging robustly but with the understanding that they have a meaningful input to make on how to
shape and guide my thinking and then put my views on the table to help improve the move a business successfully,” according to Matimba.
relationship with the union. It meant working very differently to how these relationships had
been managed before,” Mr Mbungela adds. This meant that he had run-ins with the He said, “even now when I deal with employees, I have a strong interest that says it is important to
management at that time who did not appreciate these different engagement approaches, know that we are all partners in this journey and all of us are in here to succeed on our own
even though he was meant to be an integral part of the management team. Matimba was, individually, but also collectively succeeding as a business. So that really shaped me a lot, and it was
however, liked by the union because he had brought a fresh perspective on how to engage quite instrumental in shaping the success of my career in many ways.”
productively in a way that shaped the organisation.

"It is very important - irrespective of what role you are in - to treat people as you want to be “Today’s HR function is one that delivers an employee experience
treated. It doesn’t mean you don’t disagree. You disagree but do so with humility and lots of virtually, seamlessly and makes sure that the employee feels
sympathy as well, whilst being robust on the issue at hand,” Matimba said. they’re actually well cared for. Not just in terms of having their
work or job secured, because companies are going through
He reckons the role of Human Resources has seen widespread changes from the time he difficult times, but also in terms of how they interface with the
started the field. “I come from the world wherein my first job with the government we used to employer,”
have a room full of just filing cabinets with everything on paper.
we designed for engagement with our staff which is now being developed, white-labelled and
"There was a system in place but mostly paper-based,” Matimba said, adding that, “I sold off to other companies so that their employees can interface digitally,” he adds
remember there was something called a Cadex, small cards which held a person’s leave history.
People used to enter leave on a leave form which was then mailed to Head Office where I had “We’ve had new employees join our business during the lockdown, yet it has been a seamless
to literally make sure that is filled in accurately and then reconcile the leave of the individual." journey for them because of the platforms that we’ve designed before - without knowing that we
were going to be in this situation."
He explains that one of the reasons he is in favour of transforming the HR function is that he
has lived through, seen and worked on systems that were clearly in need of improvement. On what motivates him, Matimba says “without doubt, my single most important motivating
factor goes back to employee experience. It’s often about 'how do I enable employees to continue
"One of the things that used to worry me,” states to feel the value of being part of the Vodacom family', and that is enabled through the employee
Matimba, “was when people would phone head experience that we deliver. When I reflect at the end of the day, I ask myself: what positive
office or send letters complaining about their leave employee experiences have we built for our staff? How have they become fulfilled by being part
reconciliation. I come from that era and, therefore, of the Vodacom family? It is really fulfilling and exciting to get feedback on how we have made a
my team knows that I’m very much pro- difference.”
transforming the employee experience and how to
make sure that HR is a partner in the business.” “For example, our past surveys showed that employees complained about not having the right
setups to work from home. We decided, with the help of our CEO Shameel Joosub, to launch a
He said transformation in the HR sector and the “take your chair home” campaign. That is the employee experience I’m talking about. You enable
transformation that the COVID-19 pandemic employees to get fulfilled in their day-to-day lives in a different set up in very challenging
brought, was “delivered on us. One of the things situations. So, what keeps me motivated as an individual, as an HR professional, is enabling an
that helped, at Vodacom for example, is that we employee experience that matters, that makes people or Vodacom employees fulfilled and happy
were already advanced in positioning our to be part of this journey in this company,” Matimba concludes.
organisation in terms of the future of work.
For Matimba Mbungela, the Chief Human Resource Officer of VODACOM Group, the single most
In a way, we are able to leapfrog into today’s reality, albeit forced by circumstances, we had to important reason he does what he is currently engaged in, is employee experience. Employees
make sure we have the right platforms and tools in place”. are for him; critical internal clients and employers have a responsibility to create an exceptional
employee experience.
"Today’s HR function is one that delivers an employee experience virtually, seamlessly and
makes sure that the employee feels they’re actually well cared for. Not just in terms of having
their work or job secured, because companies are going through difficult times, but also in
terms of how they interface with the employer,” Matimba said. “One of the things my team
has invested in is the digital transformation of the employee experience, and we proudly talk
about one of the apps