Rishaad Tayob, consumer business director, Vodacom South Africa.

Vodacom South Africa announced, on Friday, a 4.6% increase on its postpaid and fibre tariffs, which it says is lower than the 5.3% increase in headline inflation, announced by Stats SA for January.

This year’s adjustment will become effective from 1 April 2024. South Africa’s biggest telco, on subscriber numbers, said the decision comes at a time when it continues to invest into maintaining network resilience.

Vodacom added that the rise is also in response to various challenges faced by the industry, which have resulted in increased operational costs, including base station vandalism and battery theft, loadshedding, currency weakness and high inflation.

Rishaad Tayob, consumer business director, Vodacom South Africa, said: “We are fully alert to the financial pressures on customers caused by the high cost of living and remain committed to delivering innovations that enhance the value we deliver to customers to help alleviate cost of living pressures."

He added: “To help cushion customers from impacts of higher increases, the likes of insurance premiums, hardware and device costs, valued-added-services, and out-of-bundle rates remain unchanged.”

“Postpaid tariffs, recurring and once-off bundles will be adjusted by an average of 8%, during the month of May 2024 while fibre customers can expect a 5% average increase on selected fibre plans,” said Vodacom.

The company noted customers on selected RED Integrated and RED VIP plans get up to 11% extra data, whereas customers on Flexi plans continue to get additional airtime.