Africa is my heartbeat

Interview with MultiChoice Group CEO, Calvo Mawela

By Fiona Wakelin and Sinazo Mkoko

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit South Africa, no one knew how things would turn out, no one knew that we’d be introduced to restrictions and lockdowns forcing us to stay in our homes for months - but what was clear to MultiChoice was that millions of people would be depending on their televisions for information and entertainment. The company brought hope, entertainment, education, comfort and a sense of community during a dark and difficult time.

Enriching lives

MultiChoice - Africa’s leading entertainment company - is on a mission to use the power of entertainment to enrich lives through showcasing compelling local and international stories, which bring people together around a shared passion.

Leading and guiding the team is Group CEO, Calvo Mawela. Hailing from humble beginnings in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, the 43-year-old took over in November 2018. He had been the Chief Executive Officer of MCSA after holding the position of Head of Stakeholder and

Regulatory Affairs and Executive in the Chairman’s office. Previously he was an engineer at Sentech and a Broadcasting Spectrum Manager at ICASA.

Humble beginnings

Touching on the career path that led him to his current position, Calvo said as he grew up, he had aspired to be an engineer.

“Coming from a poor background, I knew that my mother would not even be able to afford to buy me a bus ticket to university. But as soon as I completed my matric, and said I wanted to be an engineer, she was determined to help me pursue this goal. This meant going to a loan shark and paying exorbitant interest rates - the story has a happy ending because I did not let her down and completed my engineering degree.”

Pushing boundariesToday, telling stories, sharing information and entertaining Africa rests on his shoulders, with a viewership of an estimated 100 million people across the continent.

“We’ve just crossed over 21 million households, and that’s just across Africa.

“If you think about it, an average household in an African home has five members watching television. This means that everyday we are entertaining 100 million people. And what’s exciting about Africa is we still have a big market that has not even taken up pay television. We estimate that the television market is up to 60 million households and we are sitting at around 22 million, which means we still have a long way for us to continue growing into the future as long as we execute as well as we’ve executed in the past - and that’s exciting.”

Sharing how COVID-19 has impacted the company, Calvo said when the pandemic hit, realising what the world was facing, he went around various divisions within the organisation and told them that it presented an opportunity for the company to be appreciated for what they bring to people across the continent, especially during difficult times.

“I urged them to think about people stuck in their homes, and to imagine what they would need during this tough time. The answer was that they’d need information, entertainment, and they’d want to be educated as well, on many fronts. I told the teams that we were well-positioned to bring all these three elements into a person’s home in the most cost effective way.”

He added that they partnered with various organisations and government departments to ensure that they delivered on their mandate.

“We partnered with Udemy to bring more courses to people. We partnered with the Department of Higher Education and Training to make sure that we brought high school material to kids across the continent. We made sure that we had a discussion with our news channels for them to really prioritise information around the pandemic. We also brought in the likes of the United Nations and the WHO to ensure that we provided correct information, for the public to be aware of the do’s and don’ts - because with social media becoming so prominent, it is sometimes hard for people to differentiate between what is fact and fiction.

“We are a trusted media platform that is able to bring credible information - there is a lot of editorial intervention that goes on before things are aired on our television.”

At the cutting edge of tech

Touching on technology and the impact it has had on the company, Calvo said they’ve always been known to be a company at the cutting edge of technology as they were the first pay TV platform to launch outside the US before Sky and they launched the first PVR decoder, the first dual-view decoder, and long before Netflix entered the African market, they delivered Showmax, which was the first video-on-demand service that launched in Africa.

“We are pioneers of technology and technology excites us as an organisation. We like pushing the boundaries on innovation and making sure that we bring the best that the world has to offer. And Africa remains on the cutting edge of technology. Disruption came from the internet and we were the first to embrace it by launching Showmax and we have seen very good traction coming through. While it took us a little bit of time for us to get the platform to where it is at the moment, it has grown in the last year by over 60% in terms of subscription numbers, which really demonstrates that we have managed to get the user experience to be that way. It’s second to none in the world.” Calvo went on to say that the biggest thing that they are chasing are eyeballs - and consumers go after the best content. MultiChoice have positioned themselves as the best local content producers and one of the world’s leading sports broadcasters.

“I think we have been able to achieve that by playing to our strengths, which is to bring people the best local content. Speaking of local content, we bring it in over 40 languages across the continent, and we are able to bring stories that people have never seen on TV about people who never thought that their stories are going to be told on television sets,” he said.

Africans love to see Africans

on TV Detailing how local content has changed the public perspective and how they see TV, Calvo said gone are the days when Africans used to aspire to seeing Hollywood content and getting to Hollywood.

“Things have changed, Africans love tosee their own stories being shown on TV.They want to see their own celebrities on television and they are embracing their own as big characters that can compete across the world. And we have seen content coming out of Africa going on to get resonance across the globe and it’s because of the investments that we have made across the 50 markets that we operate in.

“We have not reached them all, but many of our key markets now are able to produce content. When the content is depicted on television, you cannot see that this was shot in Zambia or Angola or Uganda. You just see the same quality that comes out of Hollywood and it’s a deliberate investment that we have made as a team, understanding that Africans love to see themselves on television.”

In terms of the commercial side of the business, he said they have seen tremendous growth over the last few years, and that’s just due to the investment in local content and sports.

My heartbeat

“When it comes to sports, people who come to Africa get surprised as to the length and breadth of sports content that we carry on our platform - from the US leagues, English Premier League, Formula One and more. To add to that, there is no platform that has the type of sports content that we have. We show more games of the English Premier League than are shown in the UK! These are the things we prioritise to ensure that we give Africans the best of sports coming from all over the world.”

Touching on his love and passion for the continent, Calvo was unequivocal:

“The continent of Africa is my heartbeat. I look at it and say, ‘here is a continent which many people look at with negative eyes, and they do not see the opportunity that lies ahead of us’. Looking at the world, I ask: ‘where will growth come from into the future?’ It will come from Africa.

“Africa, is one market that is still out there for somebody to do something special and be able to come up with a very successful business. I’m saying this because I walk the streets and interact with the people on the ground, knowing and understanding their hunger.”

Milestones

His first milestone as MultiChoice’s Group CEO was the successful listing on the JSE at the start of his term.

“We were on the cusp of listing and when we completed, it was exceptionally successful. We have remained in the top 40 listed companies and have continued to deliver value in terms of profits that have come through, which have continued to grow year-on-year.

“We have been able to pay dividends throughout this period. Pandemic or no pandemic. We took a stance that we are going to continue to pay those dividends and we paid those dividends. We have delivered on the promises we have made to the markets and we are confident that we are going to turn the rest of Africa profitable this financial year. So those are the key milestones that we have set for ourselves and promised to the market and none of them have failed.”

Leadership style

Calvo describes his leadership style as a collaborative one, involving working together and trying to find solutions to the everyday business problems that they face.

“As a leader, I don’t look over someone’s shoulder when managing my people. I give them the freedom to go and express themselves and do what they are paid to do. However, it isn’t just the effort that is important, results are what counts, so we work towards delivering on the targets that we set for ourselves.

“I’m decisive and disciplined in terms of what I need and what I require from people. I expect the same. And the people that I lead understand that there is a bigger purpose.”

He is inspired by the pioneers that come and share their ideas - and seeing those ideas becoming reality.

“I think we have a bigger purpose in life. We have seen many young people that started as actors going on to build production companies which are supplying some of the best content - which keeps us growing in terms of subscribers. It’s wonderful to see people who came to us knowing nothing about the industry and watching them grow and contributing to our industry and society-at-large.”

He added that coming from humble beginnings has also been one of his main drivers and he wants to make a difference in life and contribute to the betterment of the world.

“As I grew up and went up the ladder, I asked myself ‘what contribution can I make?’ What legacy am I going to leave behind with the responsibilities that have been entrusted to me, with those that have chosen me to take up this responsibility? And I remind my team that with growing and making more money comes responsibility and the ability to make a difference.”

In terms of expanding the business, Calvo highlighted the plan to go beyond just video entertainment - with more exciting announcements to follow about investment opportunities that will not only be impactful on the African continent but also purposeful in nature and add value to everyday Africans lives.

Refreshingly, he is optimistic about where the world is going.

“The world is going to be a better place going forward. And I think Africa is going to be central to where the world is going to end up. We need African and global leaders to continue to drive the message of hope and to continue to invest in the future of this continent - and if we focus on that we are going to look back and be proud to have made those investments in the right areas and to have contributed towards a better world out there.” •

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