As South Africa grapples with record unemployment, deepening inequality and a critical skills shortage, Vodacom is challenging the private sector to rethink its approach to social investment – by embedding monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) in core business functions, not just in social investment.
Speaking at the 2025 Trialogue Business in Society Conference, Vodacom SA Director of External Affairs Takalani Netshitenzhe said impact was central to overcoming inequality.
“Only impact measurement can assist us to make sure we deal with inequality in our country,” said Netshitenzhe.
The conference was held on 13 and 14 May at The Galleria in Sandton, Johannesburg under the theme ‘Driving impact, Inspiring change’.
The Vodacom Foundation was one of six corporate sponsors who partnered with Trialogue to discuss pressing matters impacting the corporate social investment and development in South Africa.
The Foundation and Trialogue presented a panel discussion entitled ‘Embedding a culture of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning to scale impact’.
During the discussion Netshitenzhe was critical of the traditional approach to corporate social investment, which entails “paying lip service, writing a cheque, and walking away”.
“That’s not partnership – it’s outsourcing responsibility,” she stressed. She admitted that Vodacom itself was previously more focused on outputs – such as how many schools it had connected to the internet – rather than outcomes. As a result, its good intentions often went awry. “When we donated routers and SIMS to schools and walked away, those routers often ended up in cupboards, or simply disappeared,” she said.
Netshitenzhe added: “If we’re serious about addressing inequality and building a sustainable society, MEL must be embedded from the outset – not retrofitted once programmes are running.”
The Vodacom SA executive was joined on the panel by Gcobani Zonke, the deputy president of nonprofit organisation (NPO) Ubuntu Pathways, and Dr Karen Kotschy, a research associate and freelance MEL consultant.
Today, the telecommunications corporation places unemployed graduates from the Vodacom Youth Academy in some of the schools and NPOs it works with. Placing information technology technicians within schools has translated into a higher and more effective usage of the technological devices it places in the schools. Additionally, the company no longer counts how many social workers it deploys to schools, but how the psychosocial support impacts the wellbeing of children, teachers, parents and the broader community.
To support this shift, Vodacom has established a dedicated MEL department – an unusual move in the corporate sector. “Our MEL journey is still evolving, but we’re gaining the trust of our partners and stakeholders. We’re seeing the power of MEL to shape stronger, more accountable programmes,” Netshitenzhe said.
Learning – a critical feature of MEL
Dr Kotschy called for MEL practitioners to be positioned at the heart of strategic business and programme decision-making.
“MEL teams need to se themselves as more than just technical people doing their thing on the side – they must adopt an advocacy role,” she asserted. “Relational and transformational skills are needed for this new approach to M&E.”
She acknowledged that smaller NPOs may lack resources but urged them to start with simple reflection practices and build from there, adding: “they should focus on the learning part of MEL first”.
Zonke, who is based in Gqeberha, explained that communities were an integral part of their monitoring and learning practices.
“We build our indicators alongside the community, based on what teachers, nurses, and caregivers tell us really matters. We make sure voice of community is heard – we conduct caregiver satisfaction surveys and then integrate that data into our programmes.”
He said the early childhood development teachers Ubuntu worked with didn’t “just collect developmental data – they co-design social and emotional indicators to assess the safety, attachment and wellbeing of the children”.
Ubuntu’s cradle-to-career model for vulnerable youth uses MEL not only for donor accountability but to adapt programmes in real time. “We move and then we stop and evaluate. That way, you can see where you may have gone wrong. However, that’s not failure – it’s simply how we learn,” he pointed out.
Netshitenzhe agreed that “MEL allows us to accept that things don’t always go according to plan”, but any weaknesses provide an opportunity to “do the right thing”.
From data collection to strategic learning
Netshitenzhe warned against last-minute data collation for ESG reports. “When you rush to compile stats and nobody checks the numbers, you lose credibility. We’ve learned the hard way – you can’t sign off what you can’t verify,” she said. “Now, we hold every unit accountable for the data they provide, and our auditors validate it before publication.”
As South Africa moves toward large-scale social investments, such as the R100 billion Transformation Fund, Vodacom argues that MEL needs to be embedded in such investments to ensure accountability.
“You can’t wait for programmes to launch and then ask what the impact is,” said Netshitenzhe. “You start with the problem, define the outcomes, and build MEL into the DNA of delivery.”
