Vodacom has appointed Dejan Kastelic to replace the long-serving Andries Delport as its group chief technology officer. Kastelic will start on 1 May, subject to receiving a work permit from government.

TechCentral reported in November 2019 that Delport would leave Vodacom after 23 years with the group to join Remgro’s telecommunications business, Community Investment Ventures Holdings (CIVH), as CTO where he would drive the strategy around the group’s big expansion plans in the sector.

Kastelic is joining Vodacom from Indonesian mobile operator Indosat Ooredoo, part of the Ooredoo Group from Qatar. He started his career at Amis in Slovenia and was promoted to CTO of the company in 2004.

In 2009, Kastelic joined IBM Central and Eastern Europe in the Global Technology Services business. He joined Telekom Austria Group in 2012 and took over as chief technology and information officer at Vip Mobile Serbia. He was then assigned to Si.mobil Slovenia and Mobiltel Bulgaria until 2017 in the same capacity until he was appointed to his current role at Indosat.

A graduate of the University of Maribor, he has also studied at Harvard University in the US and at Insead.

At the same time, Vodacom has appointed Puso Manthata as chief officer for strategy, mergers and acquisitions. Manthata is an investment banker who has worked for the likes of Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs in areas including M&A, disposals, restructurings, and debt and equity capital markets.