The Virgin Mobile South Africa service will come to an end on 30 November, according to a notice on the company's website. The company announced last year September that it entered business rescue in an attempt to recapitalise the business after the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to reports, Virgin Mobile South Africa said in a statement that it made progress towards the recapitalisation of the business since entering business rescue 11 months ago. The company said that negotiations progressed well and that it's optimistic the process will be concluded during September 2021.
Virgin Mobile South Africa stressed that Richard Branson and the Virgin Group are not shareholders in the company. The Virgin Group gave permission to use the Virgin brand until the end of November 2021 whilst the company went through the restructuring process.
The statement noted: "Customer experience during this transition remains the number one priority, and all customers who wish to do so will be afforded the opportunity to transfer to a new service provider with no penalties, up to the end of November 2021."
The message on the company's website read as follows:
"In recent years, the market has changed considerably, and a combination of tough trading conditions, strong competition and the economic stress posed by Covid-19 mean that it has been a challenging market for Virgin Mobile South Africa.
It has been our pleasure connecting our customers with their loved ones and we’d like to thank each of you for being part of our family in these past years.
Virgin Mobile South Africa CEO, Zak van de Merwe, said: “Virgin Mobile South Africa has been proud to connect people across South Africa for the past fifteen years.
"As we enter this next phase of the business’ growth strategy, the business plans to take a different direction which will see it move away from its traditional consumer-focused business to play a more enabling role in the further development of the South African mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) market.
“As the first MVNO on the continent 15 years ago, we were proud and still are proud to service and shape an industry that today is a significant contributor to the telecommunications sector. As the market now starts to enter the next phase of its evolution, the team are excited and equally hopeful that we will continue to play a pivotal role in the industry’s development."
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