Dark Fibre Africa's Thinus Mulder on education and access ahead of The Sun International CEO SleepOut™
Increasingly, the importance of internet access for educational purposes is becoming more apparent. Executive Director and CFO of Dark Fibre Africa Thinus Mulder talks through how their work in providing access ties in with The Sun International CEO SleepOut™.
Parallels ought to be drawn between the aims of The Sun International CEO SleepOut™ and the individual business leaders participating. Executive Director and CFO of Dark Fibre Africa (DFA) Thinus Mulder is one such leader: “Dark Fibre Africa or DFA finances, builds, maintains and installs open access dark fibre networks to transmit meta and long-haul telecommunication traffic in South Africa and we release that fibre into various institutions. We feel that a solid and strong telecommunication infrastructure can form the platform to support education and to bring the content and information closer to the end user at a more affordable rate."
Thinus expands more on the significance of The Sun International CEO SleepOut™: “It’s an excellent opportunity for the business leaders in South Africa to get together and network and maybe identify innovative strategies to help out here in South Africa.”
Thinus obtained a BCom Accounting Honours degree and a Certificate in the Theory of Accounting from the University of Pretoria in 1989.
After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1992, Thinus has held various top positions with SARS, Standard Bank, and the JSE-listed AST Group, where he was the Financial Director. In 2005, he joined the Imperial Group as Financial Director of the Lindsay Saker Group and became Managing Director two years later.
He was also a member of the main board of the Imperial Motor Division and served on a number of Audit Committees in the Imperial Group, including the Regent Insurance Group. He joined DFA in 2008.