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This is our first integrated report. Like our past annual reports, it contains lots of important numbers. But people aren’t numbers. And numbers don’t tell the whole story. The numbers in this report matter because they help us tell the story of how we create possibilities and change lives by connecting people. They matter because they help you to hold us accountable for our obligations and our impacts. They matter because they help us measure the true value we create and the real difference we make. |
| We hope it gives you the insight you need to decide how well
we will create and sustain value into the future. Please let us
know what you think of it, so we can keep on improving our
communication with you. All references in this report to ‘Vodacom’, ‘the Group’, ‘the Company’, ‘our’ and ‘we’ refer to Vodacom Group Limited and our operations |
| The scope of our report includes all our operating subsidiaries, unless otherwise stated. Where we only have data for our South African operation, we’ve shown that with ‘(#)’. South Africa represents 85.8% of service revenue and 95.4% of EBITDA. We’ve used ‘(*)’ for reporting growth at constant currency and excluding trading foreign exchange. The King Report on Governance for South Africa 2009 (‘King III’) puts South Africa at the forefront of global developments in corporate governance. King III has been written into the JSE Listings Requirements, making this a regulated requirement. Thanks to King III, South African listed companies have the opportunity to lead the charge in accountability, transparency and inclusiveness. We think this can only be good for our business, not least in building greater trust with our stakeholders. King III calls for integrated reporting. For us, this came at exactly the right time. With a new Executive Committee at the helm, we were in the process of refocusing our business and refreshing our brand. So we were able to overhaul how we look at ourselves, manage our business, engage with our stakeholders and tell our story, all at the same time. The journey started with our Board. They approved the integrated reporting project and nominated the Chairman of our Audit, Risk and Compliance (‘ARC’) Committee, as its champion. We formed an integrated reporting project team with sustainability management, finance, strategy, stakeholder relations, investor relations, commercial, technology, risk management and governance all represented. The project team held a workshop to review our key risks and opportunities. They also looked at our risk management, strategic planning, stakeholder engagement and reputation management processes. Finally they identified the issues most important to Vodacom’s ability to create and sustain value. Our Executive Committee took the process further. They agreed on five strategic priorities for creating value over the short, medium- and long-term. This involved integrating our business, risk, sustainability and stakeholder engagement strategies. The ARC Committee approved the integrated strategy and related key performance indicators. We’re now coming up with detailed plans for each priority. For us integrated reporting has not been a skin-deep, box ticking exercise. It has really helped us to manage our business better. We still have work to do to align our internal reporting processes to the five strategic priorities. We’re redesigning our monthly Executive Committee reports and quarterly Board reports to make sure our material sustainability objectives are tracked along with our financial and operational objectives. We’re also looking at introducing the new measures to performance-related remuneration. This process has confirmed a belief that’s been central to our business since it began. Vodacom, as a leading mobile communications provider, has a valuable role to play in our communities and countries. Our sustainability is closely linked to the contribution we can make to their socioeconomic development. |
We’re really excited about our future and we hope you will be too after reading our report. |
| Our integrated report has not been independently assured as a whole this year. We have just started working out our combined assurance model. We're assessing all internal and external assurance already in place and matching it to our risk management. We expect to be done by early 2012. Ernst & Young visited Vodacom as part of providing assurance for the Vodafone Group Sustainability Report. They reviewed the integration of sustainability into our businesses, the systems and processes supporting data quality and stakeholder engagement, but provided no assurance to us. We aim to achieve full assurance by March 2013. |
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For more information on assurance. |
| We have benchmarked our sustainability reporting against the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative ('GRI') declaration GRI, and self assess our application as a B level. |
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For our GRI content index visit the sustainability section on vodacom.com. |
