Telkom Group has appointed Beauty Apleni as the new CEO of its Openserve fibre business from 1 July.
The announcement was made by Telkom Group CEO Serame Taukobong at the company’s annual results presentation in Sandton on Tuesday.
Apleni replaces Althon Beukes, who stepped down as Openserve’s CEO in December 2024 after serving in various roles within Telkom Group for 30 years.
Apleni joined Telkom in 2000 as an IT intern and went on to hold various positions across the business. She has held executives roles for the last 15 years.
“What we have done at Openserve is build a great company and we are among the best in the industry,” Apleni told TechCentral in an interview on Tuesday. “What we have to do now is expand the business because the demand in the country for connectivity is still there.
“It is about how we go into this market,” she said. “Mobile operators have figured out how to scale themselves but fibre operators have not done that yet. That is the challenge we have given ourselves.”
Apleni, who in her previous role headed up strategy development for Telkom Group while simultaneously acting as chief of staff to Taukobong, said Openserve’s expansion is intrinsically tied to the Telkom Mobile business.
In tandem
In fact, the two now work in tandem, with fixed-wireless services used to enter new areas and gauge demand as customers ramp up their data usage. When consumption reaches a critical mass, it signals to Openserve that the business case for a fibre roll-out in a particular area is strong.
“Fibre and mobile complement each other; they don’t compete. Every mobile tower that goes up has to be carried by fibre backhaul. So, as mobile grows, fibre grows with it,” said Apleni.
Read: MTN poaches top Openserve executive
According to the new CEO, only 6.8 million of South Africa’s 18 million homes have fibre passing them in the street, meaning there is considerable room for the market to grow. She acknowledged that there are some instances, especially in rural and far-flung areas, where the business case for fibre might never make sense and where mobile broadband connectivity is best suited. However, Apleni argued, fibre could reach around 85% of the population given that operators adopt the right approach.
Among other roles, Apleni has run the Cybernest data centre business. She has also worked for the consumer business, where she was responsible for network roll-out and co-ordinating Telkom’s participation in the 2022 spectrum auction. She was retail channels manager, too, where she ran Telkom’s stores and was responsible for managing the company’s call centres. — (c) 2025 NewsCentral Media
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