Martin Gaone Mabutho wanted to be a diplomat. As a fresh university graduate, he hoped to make it into foreign affairs and become an Ambassador, but that didn’t work. After roaming the streets of Botswana for several months, he settled for life in customer service. In a career that spanned more than 20 years, he became one of the most influential sales, marketing and customer service executives to come out of Africa.

For more than two decades, he used his experience to educate, drive sales, inspire sales teams, and open new markets across Sub-Saharan Africa, and left footprints in 28 of the 54 African countries.

‘Sounds’ as his friends call him in Botswana and MM as they call him in Nigeria, was charming, generous, ready to help others get better through ideas and other support, and an inspiring leader who drove his team with an unfathomable suave and vigour.

He died at 47 in the early hours of Tuesday, August 24, 2021, a month to his 48th birthday.

A statement by MultiChoice Nigeria, where he was the Chief Customer Officer for three years until his death, said he died in Cape Town, South Africa, after a brief illness.

“Martin was not just a colleague but a very close friend and most trusted adviser. He was well-loved by everyone for his energy and hard work,” says John Ugbe, CEO, MultiChoice Nigeria. “His warmth, good humour and the creativity and positive attitude he always brought to the team. He will be greatly missed.”

His friend, Lungi Tsotsi, who spoke at his funeral service on Wednesday, September 1, 2021, says Mabutho was on holiday with his family in Cape Town when he became ill and was taken to the hospital where he died.

“They arrived in Johannesburg on Wednesday [August 18] and flew to Cape Town on Friday. On Friday he felt a little bit nauseous after dinner and on Saturday he wasn’t feeling well, he was admitted at the hospital on Sunday where they ran several tests and was discharged with medication,” Tsotsi says.

“When he wasn’t feeling well on Sunday, he was taken back to the same hospital by ambulance and at 5:25 am on Tuesday I got a call that he had died of malaria complications.”

Thato, his wife, says “Getting that phone call at 5:17 am on that Tuesday was the most surreal moment of my entire life.”

For more than two decades, Mabutho toured Sub-Saharan Africa, leading different professionals working to make the MultiChoice brand one of the best globally.

His schoolmate, Geoffrey Mothooagae, told Neusroom in an email that “he was a special man, a marketing Guru who was not afraid of taking on new ideas for as long as he believed they would work and would leave no stone unturned to execute them.”

Mabutho told Neusroom in 2020 that his job as MultiChoice Nigeria’s Chief Customer Officer “is to inspire the team to see the endless opportunities that the market offers, while doing our possible best to keep satisfying our customers and partners, by giving them so much more.”

Life in Mafikeng and Lobatse

Born on September 25, 1973, in Mafikeng, a border town between South Africa and Botswana, Mabutho was the first of his parents’ children. His family moved to Lobatse, in southeastern Botswana, when he was very young.

“I was born in Mafikeng; then we moved to Lobatse, where I spent my formative years. My love for football and music came out from my formative years in Lobatse,” he told Botswana’s Sonny Walebowa on the show ‘Shining The Light’ in November 2020.

“He loved Michael Jackson’s music so much to the extent of winning a trophy at primary school for imitating his moves,” one of his uncles said at his funeral service.

Mabutho was educated at Lobatse Secondary School. At LobSec, he played football and was on the school’s winning team. He was a passionate fan of Manchester United and Kaizer Chiefs of South Africa.

He bagged a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Botswana in October 1998. In 2014, he added an MBA in International Business from Henley Business School, University of Reading, United Kingdom, to his academic qualifications.

Geoffrey Mothooagae, Mabutho’s colleague at the University of Botswana and the President, Manchester United Supporters Club of Botswana, said Martin was always a jolly person, full of jokes and laughed a lot.

Mabutho the Sound Engineer and MC

His friends call him ‘Sounds’ because of his love of being MC at events and being a music enthusiast.

As an undergraduate, he pursued his love for entertainment and worked with some of his friends to form a popular music group in Botswana called ‘Tribal Monks’.

“During his spare time, he was a member of a popular music group at the time called ‘Tribal Monks’, as well as being very close to DJ Ski, who was the leader of the troupe and the up and coming DJ Fresh at the time, who went on to make it big in South Africa,” Mothooagae says. “He loved to brag in his usual jolly way about how he made the sound be the best it was, working behind the scenes as ‘Sound Manager/Engineer’ for DJ Ski and DJ Fresh, hence the nickname Sounds.”

As MC at events in Botswana, he was famous for energetically doing the mic sound check with his towel always hanging off his back pocket.

How MultiChoice journey started

After leaving the university, like many other young Africans, Mabutho said he struggled to get a job, “I think I was on the street for about eight months. It was tough.”

With a degree in Political Science and Public Administration, he hoped to make it into foreign affairs and become an Ambassador. He said he had to walk away from that dream without an option.

“I was walking on the street one day when I saw Toro Motiki who asked me what’s wrong. I kept afro, and I had lost a lot of weight, and I told him I was looking for a job, then he said ‘we just finished a meeting, and we are looking for two graduates to join us at MultiChoice’. I didn’t know about MultiChoice; we didn’t have DStv at home,” Mabutho recalled.

“So we walked across the road to the MultiChoice office, I got an overnight training, had my interview the next day and got the job right the same day…and that was how I joined MultiChoice.”

Three months after joining MultiChoice Botswana as a Customer Service Supervisor in 1999, he told his General Manager, Billy Sekgororoane, he was bored and wanted to try something different that would make him go home and have sleepless nights.

“He asked me what I wanted to do, and I told him to move me to sales because I can sell stuff, he said ‘but you never sold anything’, I said I know I can speak and convince people, try me,” he recalled. “I did that, and as they say, we went on to win awards for Best Salesperson, got promoted the next year, and eventually, we were counted among the salespeople for MultiChoice Group across Africa. So it was a calling.”

From the time he left university until his death, he never worked for any other organisation. From 1999 when his journey started at MultiChoice, he rose through the corporate ladder to become Brand Manager at MNet Africa in South Africa from 2003 to 2007; DStv Mobile’s Sales and Marketing Manager for Sub-Saharan Africa and Head, Marketing and Sales. He would later become MultiChoice Nigeria’s General Manager of Sales and Marketing and Chief Customer Officer in October 2018, five years after moving to Nigeria.

As MultiChoice Nigeria’s CCO, Mabutho was responsible for driving the customer group strategy, which covers customer value management, sales, marketing, customer experience and care.

“Every morning by 4:30, I need to be up to see what happened the previous day,” he said in an interview. “Of all the countries I’ve been to, I love Nigeria the most. Nigerians are very warm people. They remind me of home, and there’s a certain warmth, generosity, and welcoming spirit that I’ve been exposed to here.”

He was part of the team that launched Africa Magic in 2003, the Big Brother Africa show, Big Brother Naija, Idol West Africa and several other shows on DStv.

Nike Odutola who heads X3M Ideas in Zambia says despite being Botswana born, Mabutho was “more patriotic and in love with Lagos and Naija than most of its own.”

Under Mabutho’s watch as CCO, DStv Nigeria moved nine spots up from 45th place in 2019 to 36th in 2020 on the list of top 100 Most Admired Brands in Africa, according to a survey by The Brand Africa, a consumer-led survey that seeks to establish brand preferences across Africa. DStv was also named among the top five African indigenous brands. A 2020 festive season survey by Nigeria’s Netng said DStv was the preferred Pay TV option for Nigerians.

As a testament to his sales and marketing skills, Mabutho was named Brand Personality of the Year by Marketing Edge in 2016, Marketing Professional of the Year at Marketing World Awards in 2015, and Goodwill Ambassador by Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) in 2014.

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Ayeni Adekunle, the CEO of BlackHouse Media (BHM), one of Nigeria’s leading PR Agencies, and Mabutho’s friend, says it’s a tragedy to see him go.

“It was an honour to call him friend; an honour to see him in action. It’s a tragedy to see him go. And I’ll never find enough words to describe the magnitude of this loss,” Ayeni says.

In the course of his life, Mothooagae says Mabutho, being the larger-than-life character he was, transcended into areas no Motswana (his Bantu-speaking ethnic group) had done previously.

“For him to leave Botswana and be a marketing leader in South Africa and move on to do even better in a bigger market like Nigeria just goes to amplify his innate brilliance,” he said. “Not many Matswana can claim to be at his level of network reach, or even come closer for that matter.”

“If Martin believes in you he would ride so hard for you and mention you in every room as long as the opportunity presents itself. Loyal, humble and full of life,” Odutola says in a tribute.

Steve Babaeko, CEO of X3M Ideas and a close friend of Mabutho, described him as an irrepressible soul with the biggest hearts.

“MM, as we fondly call him, is a creative spirit trapped in the body of a seasoned marketing person. His love for his job and his team is exemplary,” Babaeko told Neusroom.

When Babaeko clocked 50 in June 2021, Mabutho told Neusroom, “it’s hard to imagine not having them (X3M Ideas) as our partners.”

Babaeko, the President of the Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria (AAAN), says Mabutho is “more than a client; he’s a brother and a friend. I can’t use ‘was’ in reference to Martin because to us, his loved ones, he’ll forever live in our hearts.”

Before his death, Mothooagae says, Mabutho was already in talks with agents of Manchester United, the English football club he started supporting from the late 1990s, to establish an official Manchester United Supporters Club in Nigeria.

“As I went over our emails when I introduced him to the relevant guys at United to assist, I couldn’t help but shed a tear on what could have been..!” he says.

Mothooagae added that he’s confident that someone in Nigeria “will see through this dream, for them to remember him with overtime (The man loved Nigeria and its people dearly!).”

Azariah, his first child, in her tribute at the funeral service said, “He had this light and energy that would put a smile on everyone’s face and brighten up the mood, and never in a million years would I have thought that this day would come.”

Martin ‘Sounds’ Mabutho is survived by his wife Thato Mulligan-Mabutho, their four children (including a set of twins) and his aged parents.

Martin and Thato were supposed to celebrate their 15th wedding anniversary and his 48th birthday this month (September 2021). They met in 2003 and got married in September 2006.

Thato says family time will never be the same with Mabutho’s death. “We had big plans for our future and it hurts so much that I will not grow old with you.”

Mabutho’s body was cremated after a funeral service in South Africa on Wednesday, September 1, 2021.