IoT.nxt, a company owned mostly by Vodacom, has sent its staff a Section 189 notice. The notice starts a consultation on possible retrenchments, the second such process at the company in 2026, MyBroadband reported.
An email to staff said the company was thinking about another restructuring. It pointed to the challenges facing the business, including its financial performance.
“Receipt of this notice does not mean that a decision has been made to retrench you,” the email said. “It means that your role falls within the scope of the contemplated restructuring and may be affected by the proposed changes.”
The email also said the company needed clearer roles. It added that work was going on to decide how best to position IoT.nxt for the future.
The new notice comes just after IoT.nxt finished an earlier round of job cuts. Chief executive Lazaros “Lazo” Karapanagiotidis left the company at the end of July, after those layoffs.
Officially, IoT.nxt cut its staff from 355 to 199 people. That is a drop of 43.9%. A well-placed source told MyBroadband that fewer than 199 people were left after the July layoffs.
Vodacom confirmed that a new consultation process was under way. It said no decision had been made on whether any jobs would be cut.
Because of this, Vodacom said it could not comment on what IoT.nxt would look like after the restructuring.
“IoT.nxt recognises the uncertainty that such processes can create for employees,” a Vodacom spokesperson said. “We are committed to engaging affected employees and their representatives transparently, respectfully and in accordance with applicable legal requirements.”
MyBroadband asked Vodacom if this would be the last round of layoffs needed to keep IoT.nxt going. Vodacom repeated that there may be no retrenchments at all.
“The current focus is on conducting the consultation process properly and considering measures aimed at avoiding or minimising potential job losses,” the spokesperson said.
In August, Vodacom told MyBroadband that comparing staff numbers from the peak in February 2022 with current numbers was not simple. The spokesperson said some roles had been merged and others redesigned.
“IoT.nxt’s strategic focus shifted from platform to product, and the operating model was aligned with the current scale of the business,” the spokesperson said.
The source disputed this. They said IoT.nxt had not truly been restructured. They said job cuts were used to save money, while the same work was shared among fewer and fewer workers.
Vodacom agreed to buy a 51% stake in IoT.nxt on 4 May 2019. The maximum price was R1.028 billion, with R469 million paid in cash.
The other R559 million depended on earn-out conditions that were not made public. Vodacom said these were linked to the business’s future performance.
Vodacom’s 2020 financial results showed IoT.nxt was losing money. It brought in about R3.2 million in revenue a month but lost about R5.5 million a month.
In the 2023 financial year, Vodacom bought another 14% of IoT.nxt and 10T Holdings. This raised its effective shareholding from 51% to 65%.
By Vodacom’s own count, this will be IoT.nxt’s fourth round of layoffs in four years. The company’s UK business also went through a separate process in October 2024.
Source: this article is based on reporting by mybroadband.co.za. Image: mybroadband.co.za. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice Business desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Anelisa Nkuna covers business and money news for Tzaneen Voice. Anelisa reports on the rand, fuel prices, interest rates, jobs, Eskom, Transnet, farming and company results. The aim is simple: explain what the numbers mean for household budgets, small businesses and workers in South Africa.