Kabelo Makwane takes up country director role at Google

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Kabelo’s appointment signals Google's continued focus on leveraging AI and technology to drive innovation and impact in South Africa.

Google has appointed Kabelo Makwane as its new country director for South Africa, effective 6 January 2025.

“I’m excited to join the team in South Africa and to help more people and businesses get more out of artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet, and technology in general,” said Kabelo.

Before joining Google, Kabelo was regional sales manager at Cisco Systems, country MD at Microsoft, MD of technology, and later MD of operations at Accenture. At Vodacom Business Africa, where Kabelo was managing executive, his strategic leadership was instrumental in driving new business growth and development. Kabelo has also served as a non-executive director at Capitec Bank, the City of Johannesburg, and Strate.

Kabelo succeeds Dr Alistair Mokoena, who was the search giant’s country director until July 2024.

He holds a BCom finance degree from the University of KwaZulu-Natal and an MBA from the University of the Witwatersrand.

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