Cell C employees began moving into the company’s sprawling new campus, built at the confluence of the N1 and N3 freeways in Woodmead, near Midrand, at the end of last year.

The 50 000sq m facility includes a main head office facility, a customer service centre, a new national network operations centre, a distribution warehouse, call centre facilities and an upmarket canteen. The vast campus is bookended by two Cell C-branded towers, which also double as base stations, according to a Cell C spokesman.

There’s even a rehabilitated wetland on the campus, including a 1,8km walking trail.

The new facility pulls together a number of disparate offices that Cell C used previously. Its main head office was previously located at 70 Rivonia Road in the heart of Sandton.

The new head office, for which Cell C has signed a lease agreement, forms part of the multibillion-rand Waterfall Business Estate development, which straddles the N1 between the Buccleuch interchange and Midrand’s Allandale Road.

Property fund Atterbury Investment Holdings is the major investor in the property development.

The Islamic Institute has owned the land since 1934. Atterbury secured a 99-year lease over the site because the land could not be sold in terms of Islamic law.

The Waterfall development consists of a shopping mall, offices and homes.

A number of other technology businesses have moved into the area recently, including MB Technologies, Altech, SAP, FibreCo, Nashua, On Digital Media and BT Group. Software vendor Oracle has had an office in the area for a number of years already. The area is centrally located between Johannesburg and Pretoria, with a freeway to the east leading to Johannesburg’s main airport.

When Cell C CEO Alan Knott-Craig was group CEO of Vodacom, he was instrumental in the construction of a sprawling campus for the mobile operator in Midrand, with a shopping centre called Vodaworld — now Vodacom World — taking centre stage. The Vodacom facility includes conference facilities and a gym.