WASPA has elected its new office bearers for 2022

South Africa’s Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association (WASPA) has elected its new board for 2022 – introducing a new Membership Chair Iman (Faith) Malaka, and Casper de Villiers who returns to the WASPA board as Treasurer.

Malaka is the co-founding member, CEO and majority shareholder of TIC IT Telecoms and has over 20 years’ experience in the telecommunications and IT sector. She has gained experience by being on the forefront of many strategic projects at renowned organisations.

She understands the VAS landscape and the business dynamics for the SMEs in the telecommunications industry.

Speaking to her appointment, Malaka said; “I am really excited to be part of the WASPA board and look forward to serving the industry and our members through this body. My role will be focused on managing the membership portfolio and I especially look forward to amplifying the value of our organisation to our stakeholders, as well as ensuring that WASPA fulfils its self-regulatory and self-representation mandates.”

De Villiers takes over as Treasurer and Finance Chair for the association. He is no stranger to the industry or WASPA, having previously served on the then Management Committee in various roles, including Chairman. His official WASPA duties will focus on further refining financial processes and maintaining sound financial protocols.

“It is an honour to continue to serve the mobile community once again through WASPA,” says de Villiers. “My goal as part of WASPA is to ensure that we provide consumers with the knowledge and mechanisms to be in total control of their mobile spend and to ensure that the more vulnerable population groups are even more educated on how to look out for any pitfalls in terms of managing their data and airtime. For our members, my focus will be on ensuring that WASPA manages its funds in a transparent, responsible way in terms of member interest and community involvement.”

The official 2022 WASPA office bearers include Anthony Ekerold (Chairperson), Jacqui Jones (Vice-Chair & Telco Affairs Portfolio), Casper de Villiers (Treasurer and Finance Portfolio), James McNab (Code Portfolio), Ilonka Badenhorst (Communications Portfolio), Iman Malaka (Membership Portfolio) and Michiel Huisamen (Wholesale Portfolio).

Anthony Ekerold, Chairperson of WASPA is confident that the new board will work closely together to drive the mission of WASPA as a regulatory body. “As an industry body, WASPA has been successful in transparently serving the best interests of consumers, together with representing mobile application and service providers, and I am confident that the board that has been voted in by the members will take this challenge forward – bringing substantial contributions to WASPA through their expertise, passion and commitment to growing the broader industry.”

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