Taki Netshitenzhe, Director of External Affairs, Vodacom SA and Chairperson, Vodacom Foundation, is a lawyer by profession and spent 20 years in government as a law writer and a legal and policy advisor for the intelligence services.
After 10 years within the intelligence and security framework, she ventured into cybersecurity specialising in communications security.
Her career in government took her to the diplomatic services of the Department of International Relations as South Africa’s Ambassador to Hungary and Croatia. She refers to her career in the public sector as “auspicious”, which prepared her for the position she currently holds within Vodacom South Africa because she believes there is no better grounding in public policy than working in a Minister’s office and working with politicians.
“As a law writer, my main responsibility was to craft laws, working with politicians at an executive and legislative level, including business and civil society in the context of what we call in South Africa, participatory democracy”. She says that experience honed her skills as a champion of human rights and to understand how to manage diverse stakeholders – something that’s at the centre of her position at Vodacom as the Director of External Affairs and Chairperson of the Vodacom Foundation.
Taki spoke to ImpactSA in our Women in Leadership series with Vodacom, about the challenges facing women as they climb the ladders in their careers.
