South African business leader who wished pain and suffering for his team was paid R42 million

Charles Molapisi is one of the top executives at MTN Group and one of its best-paid, earning a total remuneration package of R42 million in 2025.

He leads the technology and AI strategy at Africa’s largest telecommunications company and said in a recent interview that he wants his team to suffer so they can grow.

Molapisi told Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh on the SMWX podcast that he believes people build character and improve when they encounter adversities in life.

“My team thinks I’m funny when I say that I wish them pain and suffering, because I’m pretty much like many of us,” Molapisi said.

“I think many excellent people, people who have done very well, are products of pain, failure, and hardship.”

Born and raised in the tiny village of Rankaile, in Mpumalanga, Molapisi shared in an interview with CIONET TV that he was raised by a strong, single mother.

His mother was highly influential in his life, and although he was raised without a father, he benefitted from a supportive, unified community in Rankaile, which helped raise him.

“I was fortunate that I had a community growing up in a village — a community which was unified and had a nice cohesion that was able to help us, and uncles who assisted me,” he said.

Molapisi completed both his primary and secondary schooling in his home village. He started a BackABuddy campaign last year to raise money for his underfunded primary school.

The campaign managed to raise R142,000 in 10 months with the hopes of building a digital computer lab for Rankaile Primary School.

Molapisi has spoken about the importance of digital education for young people in South Africa, especially those from underprivileged backgrounds.

The MTN executive spoke fondly of his humble background and education, and of a teacher he had between grades 3 and 6 that served as a major mentor in his early life.

“Because of the way he drummed home the message of how he believed in me and what I could become, I still draw inspiration from that even today as a Group CTIO,” Molapisi said.

The sponsorship that changed Molapisi’s career

He would go on to pursue a Bachelor of Commerce degree at the University of the Witwatersrand, with aspirations to enter the fields of marketing and information systems.

During his studies, he took part in a sponsorship opportunity from financial services organisation Liberty Life, which paid for his university studies in full.

“But the only problem, of course, the caveat for the sponsorship, was that I had to stay in the technical stream,” Molapisi said.

“My ambition, of course, was that eventually I was going to work for an advertising agency; I wanted to go into marketing and do creative work.”

The internship at Liberty would shape the rest of his career, as he spent six years working in the organisation in a technical position, maintaining an internal web portal.

This highly technical experience would be instrumental in securing a position at Telkom, where he began as an entry-level developer after leaving Liberty.

Molapisi spent a further six years at Telkom and was working as a senior manager at the partly state-owned company before leaving to join MTN Nigeria in 2009.

He would eventually become an executive of MTN Nigeria, appointed to the position of chief information officer within his first three years at the company.

Molapisi said that his time in Nigeria was initially expected to be a two-year assignment, but he remained in the position because he found it unexpectedly enjoyable.

Third-highest-paid executive at MTN

This two-year assignment would be extended to nearly seven years, during which Molapisi managed a $200 million portfolio.

He would eventually return to his home country in 2019, where he would assume the position of group chief technology and information officer.

Other than a brief stint as MTN South Africa CEO from 2021, Molapisi has been in this position since.

He told Mpofu-Walsh that it is generally difficult to achieve big things in life, which is why so few people do so, and why hardship often creates capable people.

According to MTN Group’s remuneration report for the 2025 financial year, Molapisi was the group’s third-highest-paid executive, receiving R42 million from the company.

The executive shared that his life was a testimony of community and purpose. “From a tough background to a captain of industry and the privilege of leading one of SA’s top companies.”

“Born and raised in a rural village of Rankaile, I have seen the true value of education.”

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