The boards, councils and forums Hasmukh Gajjar has served on since the 1990s, and the work he is doing now.
Alongside his business career, Hasmukh Gajjar has given time to industry bodies, trusts and boards. Most of this work was about opening South Africa's economy, and its technology sector in particular, to Black people and businesses.
It started with the Black Information Technology Forum in the Western Cape in 1995. Later came the chair of Vodacom, the .za Domain Name Authority and the Thabo Mbeki Education Trust. Boards have tended to ask him to chair them for his experience of change management and governance.
Corporate Leadership
In October 1997 Hasmukh Gajjar was appointed non-executive Chairman of Vodacom Group, three years after the company launched. Although the role was non-executive, he worked in it full time for 27 months, until March 2000.
During his time the shareholders came to agree more closely on strategy, relations between shareholders and management improved, and the company worked much more closely with government. He also pushed for Vodacom to serve customers on low incomes. He describes it as his first major experience of organisational change management.
Domain Name Governance
From 2003 to 2015 he chaired the .za Domain Name Authority (ZADNA), which manages and regulates South Africa's .za domain names — the web and email addresses that end in .za.
He later served as a director of ZA Central Registry (2015–2018) and, since 2017, of Registry Africa.
Education
Hasmukh Gajjar chaired the Thabo Mbeki Education Trust for seventeen years, from 2002 to 2019.
When the Thabo Mbeki Foundation was being established, the Trust — under his chairmanship — supported the transition: contributing to the Foundation's establishment, and advising on its design as an overarching foundation able to support and manage a range of programmes and projects.
Economic Transformation
He was President of the Black Business Council from 2001 to June 2002. The Council represents Black-owned and Black-empowered businesses in South Africa.
He came to it from the technology industry, where he had co-founded HNR Computers in 1987 — one of the early Black-owned businesses in the sector — and was chairing the Black Information Technology Forum.
— Hasmukh Gajjar"Spin the wheel for others with no expectations — it always comes back with interest."
Sectoral & Advocacy Roles
Other industry bodies, committees and company roles he has held.
Chairman — Western Cape & National
A founding member of the Western Cape Black Information Technology Forum (BITF), he was elected chairman of its first executive and led it from 1995 to 2002. He chaired the National BITF from May 1999 to 2003, and served on the Gauteng BITF executive from 2002 to 2005.
Task Team Member — 2003–2005
He was a member of the task team that developed the ICT sector's Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment codes.
Executive — 2001–2016
He served on the executive of the South African Communications Forum, an industry body for the communications sector, for fifteen years.
Chairman, Campaign Committee — 2001–2005
He chaired the fundraising campaign committee of the University of Cape Town's Institute of Infectious Diseases and Molecular Medicine.
CEO — 2001–2003
Consilience Technologies was a J&J Group initiative in partnership with Tata Africa. He was its CEO, as part of his work as an executive of J&J overseeing its technology investments (2000–2011).
Deputy CEO, Faritec 2003–2010 · Business Partner, Silulo 2011–2013
At Faritec he was Deputy CEO, representing J&J's 30% stake. From 2011 to 2013 he was a business partner of Silulo Ulutho Technologies, building a chain of digital stores, including Vodacom stores, for people whose only device was a mobile phone. For almost two years he was based in and worked from Khayelitsha.
Director
ZA Central Registry (2015–2018), Registry Africa (2017–present) and TENET (2017–2023).
Active Today
He continues to work on two organisations he founded.
Founder & CEO
2010 – Present
Mobilearn began in 2010 as Free Your Mind Technologies, a digital-literacy project built around one idea: be smart with your smartphone. In 2012–13 he began making how-to videos in English and isiXhosa under the name Mobilearn — turn your smartphone into a classroom. In 2017 Vodacom asked him to supply videos, and the project became a business. Mobilearn is now a boutique digital media company, with Vodacom still a key client.
ActiveFounding Director
2024 – Present
Since January 2021 he has run the technical side of UCT's Department of Medicine refresher course for the Fellowship of the College of Physicians, which moved online during COVID-19. That work led him to found Medilearn Africa in 2024, a small non-profit company that aims to connect health workers and advance health care through knowledge sharing.
Founded 2024If you would like to talk about any of this work, or about Mobilearn or Medilearn Africa, Hasmukh is happy to hear from you.