In this section: Ruth Benjamin-Swales; Lindani Dhlamini; Lindy Bodeweig; Tonia Jackson and more…
Ruth Benjamin-Swales
Audit Partner Erns & Young
Tel: (021) 443 0386
www.ey.com/za
The pace at which women chartered accountants in South Africac have been breaking through the accountancy profession’s glass ceiling has quickened. Ruth Benjamin-Swales is a University of Cape Town graduate who qualified as a CA(SA) in 1989. After completing her training, she worked at Ernst & Young, and then moved to the Office of the Auditor General.
In 1997 she was invited to join the partnership of KMMT Brey, which became part of Ernst & Young in 2002. She is currently an audit partner for the firm in Cape Town, where she is responsible for a portfolio of clients in the education and public sectors. Since qualifying as a CA(SA), Benjamin-Swales has served the accountancy profession through her involvement in many subcommittees, councils and boards, including the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica), the Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants of Southern Africa and as president of the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors. She is also the immediate past president of Saica in the southern region.
Lindani Lorna Dhlamini
CEO Xabiso Chartered Accountants
Tel: (011) 802 4155
www.xabiso.co.za
Lindani Lorna Dhlamini set out to be a computer programmer; she completed a BSc (computer science) degree at the University of Cape Town and then a BComm (conversion course) at the same university. She joined Southern Life in Cape Town as a computer programmer, and while working under the leadership of a chartered accountant she realised her love for figures.
This inspired her to pursue the CA route, and in 1999 she qualified as a chartered accountant. Four years later she co-founded Xabiso Chartered Accountants, a professional services firm that focuses on auditing, consulting, financial management and corporate finance.
Lindy Bodeweig
Chief Director Technical Services National Treasury
Tel: (012) 315 5702
www.finance.gov.za
In her post at the National Treasury, Lindy Bodewig, a chartered accountant, is involved with research and development of accounting policies and best practice guidelines for the public sector. Providing assistance and guidance on public sector accounting standards and frameworks and the implementation of day-to-day contact with government departments and other public sector bodies are among her activities.
Born in Pretoria, she studied at the University of Pretoria and completed her training at PricewaterhouseCoopers. She says that the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants has been instrumental in creating projects that help promote skills-based careers among South Africa’s youth. ‘Among the several magnets luring young people to the profession is the instant recognition you receive from qualifying as a CA(SA), locally and internationally. I find this highly rewarding. To get there, however, students must be prepared for much hard work. Nothing of value comes easy.”
Tonia Jackson
Project Director Transformation and Growth SA Institute of Chartered Accountants
Tel: (011) 621 6631
www.saica.co.za
Tonia Jackson began her career in KPMG’s insurance division. After completing her articles in 2002, she worked as an audit manager at KPMG until early 2005, when she joined the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) as project director: financial services.
In this role, she was responsible for accounting, auditing and regulatory projects and the management of key stakeholder relationships within the various financial services industries in South Africa. In July 2008, Jackson moved to Saica’s transformation and growth division, where she is involved in projects aimed at transforming the profession.
Hester Hickey
Former chairperson SA Institute of Chartered Accountants
Tel: 082 377 2534
www.omnia.co.za
From bookkeeper to fully fledged chartered accountant and executive officer of AngloGold Ashanti as well as the first-ever woman chairperson of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants: these are the highlights of Hester Hickey’s career. After school, Hickey had applied for accountancy training but did not have matric qualifications in mathematics.
Only in her mid-20s did she study mathematics at the Port Elizabeth Technikon and accounting at Unisa. Five years later she qualified as a CA(SA) and became a partner in a small audit firm. Two years afterwards, she became a lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, followed by an appointment as head of BDO Spencer Stewart’s technical and training activities.
She later joined Transnet’s internal audit team and, when she left to join Ernst & Young, was acting head of the team. After 18 months she joined Liberty but left to head up internal audit and risk reporting at AngloGold, where she stayed for nine years. Until June this year she was senior vice president: consulting services at Marsh (Pty) Ltd but has now gone out on her own as a consultant. Hickey served two terms as the chairperson of Saica. She is also a board and audit committee member of Omnia Limited and serves as a trustee and audit committee member on several large pension funds.
Kim McFarland
COO Investec Asset Management
Tel: (021) 416 1000
www.investecassetmanagement.com
As chief operating officer at Investec Asset Management, Kim McFarland is part of the core team that grew the company’s assets from approximately $75-million to over $40-billion today. She started there in 1993 as chief financial officer and over the years has been instrumental in establishing Investec as one of the leading mutual fund providers and managers of segregated accounts in South Africa.
Prior to her role at Investec Asset Management, she worked at Southern Life Assurance in Cape Town as a financial manager. She earned a BCom and bachelor of accountancy at the University of the Witwatersrand. In 1994 she completed her MBA at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business and serves on its board of governors. Her success has garnered her prestigious awards and accolades, such as the South African Business Woman of the Year in 2002 and one of the 2008 Financial News’ Top 100 Women in European Finance.
Tsakani Matshazi
Financial Director Izingwe Capital
Tel: (011) 784 3886
www.izingwe.com
Tsakani Matshazi’s trajectory has been impressive. Only 16 years ago, she was looking after the till at her family’s supermarket in Soshanguve, near Pretoria, on school holidays from St Andrews in Johannesburg, which she attended as a weekly boarder. Today, at the tender age of 33, she manages the till at one of South Africa’s successful empowerment investment vehicles.
After matriculating in 1993, Matshazi completed her BCom at the University of Cape Town and passed her qualifying examinations during her first year of training. She soon married and moved with her husband to Port Elizabeth, where she worked at a public sector organisation that assisted black economic empowerment SMEs. Upon returning to Johannesburg, she became financial director of Izingwe Capital, where she has remained ever since. Matshazi is chairperson of the CA Charter Council and president of the Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants in Southern Africa.
Chantyl Mulder
Senior Executive: Transformation South African Institute of Chartered Accountants
Tel: 082 777 9415
www.saica.co.za
Chantyl Mulder trained for her CA(SA) at KPMG before joining the Public Accountants and Auditors’ Board in 1985 as education officer, a position she held for five years before being promoted to director: education and training. She joined the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) in 1999 to head its transformation and growth division, where she developed a comprehensive transformation plan and strategy.
This evolved into the Thuthuka Education Upliftment Project, which seeks to transform the profession through education and corporate social responsibility projects. Mulder, who is Saica’s senior executive: transformation, is also the facilitator of the Chartered Accountancy Profession BEE Charter. In addition, she serves on the Denel board as a non-executive director and has been chair of the Denel audit committee for the past four years.
Karabo Tshailane Nondumo
CEO Awca Investment Holdings Ltd
Tel: (011) 803 6151
www.aih.co.za
The inaugural CEO of Awca Investment Holdings Limited, Karabo Tshailane Nondumo served on the African Women Chartered Accountants Forum (Awca) investment subcommittee from 2006 to 2008, tasked with formulating the investment company concept and soliciting interest from the investment community and potential shareholders.
She was previously at Rand Refinery Ltd, a precious metals management company, where she was the head of global market operations. An associate at Shanduka Resources, she served on the boards of Kangra Coal, Dowding, Reynolds and Associates, Lace Diamonds (listed on AltX under its parent company, Diamondcorp) and Shanduka Coal, where she represented Shanduka Resources’ interests. At Shanduka Coal she was involved in raising capital and evaluating coal mining opportunities and turn-around strategies for the mines, as well as human resources management.
She holds a BAcc from the University of Natal and an HDipAcc from the University of the Witwatersrand. She completed her articles with PriceWaterhouseCoopers, then joined the Shanduka Group as an associate and executive assistant to the executive chairman, Cyril Ramaphosa, and went on to hold other positions within the group, gaining experience in, inter alia, the mining and resources sector in mergers and acquisitions. She is a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants and an independent non-executive director of Rolfes Technology Holdings Limited and Top Fix Holdings Limited and a member of the boards’audit committees.
Zimkhitha Phaphama Zatu
Business Analyst Industrial Development Corporation
Tel: (071) 536 7477
www.idc.co.za
Rarely does one come across a 25-year-old CA(SA). Zimkhitha Phaphama Zatu is not only young; she’s using her CA(SA) designation to help both new businesses and young people starting out in the profession. Having worked at KPMG as an audit supervisor immediately after completing her articles, she joined the firm’s transaction services unit.
In August 2008 she joined the Industrial Development Corporation as a business analyst. Her responsibilities include initial screening of business plans and the performance of due diligence investigations for clients looking for funding. This has seen her assist both small and listed entities in terms of acquiring funding. Zatu attended Kaffrarian High School, now known as Kingsridge High School, in King Williams Town, and completed both her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at the University of the Witwatersrand.
She is a board member of the African Women Chartered Accountants Forum (Awca). Through Awca, she is actively involved in encouraging more young black people to pursue accounting-related studies and has mentored young girls who are studying and starting out in the profession. In the longer term, she sees herself in a role that involves using the business skills she has acquired over the years to help small businesses, municipalities and government departments to become more efficient.
Leigh Roberts
Project Director Sustainability South African Institute of Chartered Accountants
Tel: (011) 621 6937
www.saica.co.za
Leigh Roberts joined the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants early in 2009 as project director: sustainability, reflecting her interest in the environment and responsible business. The move came as a departure from many years of financial journalism. In television, she was a business anchor with eNews (and still is), CNBC Africa, SABC3 and Summit TV.
She presented and produced the award-winning Money talk programme on Summit TV for five years. In print media, she has written for numerous publications, including the Financial Mail, Business Times and Personal Finance. She was the founding editor of Business Times Money in the Sunday Times. She has won numerous awards for print journalism. Roberts studied at the University of Natal and completed her articles with Ernst & Young.