A strengthening dollar and localised challenges have further exacerbated these issues in the South African market. Corruption, deteriorating municipalities and energy, transport and water infrastructure, and rising unemployment has meant that South Africans have little to buffer themselves against the loadshedding crisis engul ng our country. But all is not lost. Civil and private society is stepping in and stepping up in South Africa and the political landscape is shifting. We are a nation of bright, hungry and capable people. We are nothing if not resilient. We have such come a long way, and yet we are just getting started. Standing back and surveying this landscape as leaders of our organisation, we have to be careful to avoid extreme thinking. We cannot be too defeatist, resigned to a world of sub-par outcomes because of the litany of challenges that confront us daily. We must persevere. But we cannot be too idealistic, believing that everything will work out perfectly despite the dim reality of our present circumstances. We must adapt. As an organisation, therefore, we opt for pragmatism over undue pessimism and optionality over undue optimism. We ask ourselves what we can do within the constraints of our current environment? How can we improve? How can we make things better? What can we build? What can we create? Who can we connect with? How can we help? And when we ask those questions, we nd that there is no shortage of opportunity to improve and myriad ways for us to make a positive difference in our customers’ lives. With that framing in mind, we detail the performance of our operating segments in the following sections on pages 58 to 63. However, we wanted to take a moment in the remainder of our letter to ag some of the operating highlights from the year given the enormous effort that our teams put in to keep the company moving forward. Operating highlights for FY23: • South Africa: Despite the challenges noted above, the South African business still managed to grow its 90-day base by 3% YoY, while simultaneously growing its new business lines, including DStv Insurance which grew revenues by 22% YoY. The business also tripled the size of its linear streaming base through our DStv via Streaming and saw our DStv Internet subscriber base grow by over 5x, albeit both platforms growing from small bases in the prior year. We continued to enhance our Compact package “We are hard at work at managing our South African business through unprecedented challenges while implementing many initiatives to enhance our organisation and add value to our customers’ lives.” Calvo MawelaChief executive officer Phuthuma Nathi Investments (RF) Limited Integrated annual report 2023 33 Overview Introduction Understanding Phuthuma Nathi Understanding MultiChoice SA MultiChoice SA performance Financial review Corporate governance review Shareholder information
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