A BETTER TOMORROW

South Africans have faced multiple blows over the last three years, and while it didn’t start with Covid-19, the pandemic acted as a catalyst for everything that tested our resilience. Now, however, the word “resilient” has been replaced with “future-ready”, and number crunchers have turned into change agents.

In October last year, during our first live Finance Indaba since the onset of the pandemic, finance professionals from across Africa were urged by the Auditor-General of South Africa, Tsakani Maluleke, to “be better, and do better”. She called on everyone to use their positions of power to influence positive change, and many have taken up the challenge [see page 48].

In our cover interview, 2022 CFO of the Year Arno Daehnke shared how he has been making sure, through his role, that Standard Bank is ready to operate in a changed world [see page 20].

We also read how Punki Modise, Buhle Hanise and Boitumelo Mosako have traded in their CFO roles for new roles that will improve the reach of their impact as leaders [see page 12], EOH FD Megan Pydigadu spent a day in a wheelchair to try and bring more atten- tion to the challenges disabled people still face in the workplace [see page 60], and Hollard Group CFO Dirk Viljoen is enabling transformation as a white, Afrikaans man [see page 40].

And it’s no secret that, in order for any organisation to make it to the future, they need a revolutionary team. At the first CFO Summit of 2023, finance leaders like Simon Adams, Mikateko Tshetshe, Avashnee Ramdial, Eddie Fivaz and Craig Sumption all revealed how they are building high-performance teams with the skills they need to navigate entirely new environments [see page 36].

We also heard during multiple CFO Dinners that, despite the horizons being clouded with challenges at the moment, there is still hope for better weather – if everyone bands together and brings back the spirit of Ubuntu [see pages 26, 64, and 70]!

At CFO South Africa, we try to make a meaningful impact through our content. We are proud of the way we can bring leaders together from all industries during our events to collaborate on finding solutions that will enable a better future.

Caylynne Fourie