of experience
FMCG
TK started his career in 1992 at Unilever and quickly rose through the ranks to manage Unilever’s second biggest brand, Surf as Senior Brand Manager.
Beverages
TK then joined the Coca-Cola Company in 1997 managing Diet Colas, iconic youth brand Sprite and also a stint as Divisional Consumer Segment Strategist.
Experience with Iconic Brands
After leaving Coca-Cola, TK joined MTN in 2000 as GM: Brand Marketing, where he drove the brand’s shift from a niche contract-only business to a mass-market pre- and post-paid offering. In 2002, he became the first Commercial Marketing Director at Cell C, leading the launch of the third-entrant mobile operator and positioning it as a mainstream brand. A decade later, in 2012, TK joined Telkom as Managing Executive: Mobile Marketing, overseeing the discontinuation of 8-ta and the successful launch of Telkom Mobile.
He later became Managing Executive: Group Brand, spearheading the transformation of Telkom’s corporate brand identity and rebranding its network division as Openserve. TK was a key member of Telkom’s turnaround team, contributing to its repositioning from an underperforming state-owned entity to a strong commercial brand listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.
After leaving Cell C, TK joined South African Tourism in 2003 as its Global Chief Marketing Officer, at a stage when tourism was defining itself as a major GDP contributor in South African, where South African Tourism was establishing itself as a commercially driven state-owned entity, and where South Africa as a country was establishing itself globally in the community of nations.
TK led the marketing effort across 44 markets on 5 continents globally, through eleven offices around the world. He is credited with leading iconic advertising campaign, “I Am an African” featuring then President Thabo Mbeki, and the launch of now well established domestic marketing campaign “Sho’t Left”. TK later return to South African Tourism in the same capacity and led South African Tourism through the COVID-19 global shutdown is the nation-unifying campaign “Don’t Travel Now, So You Can Travel later”.
In 2019, he returned to South African Tourism initially as its Global Chief Marketing Officer but at the time of his departure in 2003 he was South African Tourism’s Acting Chief Executive Officer. In the Aviation space, in 2007, TK was the Group Executive: Corporate Affairs for Airports Company, South Africa during the airport construction period leading up to the FIFA 2010 Football World Cup in South Africa. He played a key role in managing public communications and stakeholder engagement over that period. He has also spend time at national carrier, South African Airways (SAA) in 2018, as its Managing Executive: Marketing, where he focused on building the internal brand of SAA which has proved a valuable asset in the current turnaround of SAA.
In 2016-2017, TK worked on a banking merger in Zambia as a marketing consultant. BancABC and Finance Bank of Zambia were both owned by financial services company, Atlas Mara. From a marketing standpoint, under the leadership of the BancABC management, TK led the discontinuation of both the BancABC and Finance Bank of Zambia brands and the launch of Atlas Mara which, for the first time, would operate as a retail brand
During 2008-2012, TK operated an independent business consulting practice where he rendered business strategy and corporate
restructuring services to entities such as the dti, National Gambling Board, Eswatini Tourism and Old Mutual.
Board Directorate: Mzilikazi has transitioned into board directorate and senior advisory services. He currently serves the Chairperson of Nkangala Economic Development Agency, leading the economic diversification of the district away from coal value chain reliance into other industries. Previously he has also served two terms on the Marketing Association of South Africa (MASA) board and the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa (ASA) board.
Entrepreneurship
Mzilikazi is an entrepreneur at heart, with a strong social consciousness bias. He currently has established The Innerman Institute which focuses on addressing inner brokenness in society, helping people rebuild their lives, and equipping them with tools to live purposeful and fulfilled lives.
Qualifications
Mzilikazi graduated from the then University of Swaziland with a Bachelor of Arts (Law) degree. He also obtained masters certificates from Edinburgh Business School in Marketing and Organisational Behaviour. While at MTN, he attended a dynamically impactful course at IMD in Switzerland, Orchestrating Peak Performance, as well as a Finance for Non-Financial managers course of Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS). To keep up with technology-driven marketing, Mzilikazi is also a digital marketing graduate of Red & Yellow Digital school at Stellenbosch University. Having completed requisite coursework, Mzilikazi is in the process of completing his masters research paper to obtain the MA ICT Policy and regulation degree from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits)
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