Karine’s start in finance was far from straightforward. Despite having lived in South Africa since her childhood, the DRC-born finance leader struggled to gain access to major audit firms.
Before building her career in finance, Karine Bashala’s life was shaped by resilience in the face of profound challenges. Orphaned at a young age during the turbulence of the early 1990s, she and her siblings first found care through their church in Johannesburg, and later through the home of their older married sibling.
Without the security of a safety net, Karine learnt early that stability could never be taken for granted. Her determination was tested again during her university years, when her family endured the sudden loss of her youngest sibling.
Rather than allowing these hardships to define her, Karine chose to transform adversity into motivation. Education became her bridge out of vulnerability – a deliberate path towards empowerment and the foundation for her future in finance.
“I was strong academically,” Karine recalls. “Even though I came from a very small, inner-city school in downtown Johannesburg, I consistently performed at the top of my class. When I applied to Wits, they questioned whether my marks were real because of the kind of school I came from – my principal had to write a letter to confirm that my results were indeed as submitted.”
Starting her career
Karine went on to complete a four-year bachelor’s in accounting at the University of the Witwatersrand, and was later placed in the national Top 10 during her board exams.
Starting her career was far from straightforward. At the time, being a foreign national born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, despite having lived in South Africa since her childhood, access to major audit firms was limited. This led her to begin her articles at a smaller firm, RSM.
It turned out to be a great opportunity as the firm gave her broad exposure to the different facets of accounting and auditing. She remained on as a manager before making a pivotal move into banking. Her transition into Standard Bank proved transformational, exposing her to performance reporting, executive decision-making and the mechanics of a large financial institution.
“After several years in banking, I reached a point where I realised that while I had gained incredible exposure at Standard Bank, something in me was craving a different kind of impact,” Karine says.
“I was deeply involved in business performance, consolidating results, unpacking variances and preparing executive packs, but I wanted to move closer to the commercial heartbeat of the organisation. I wanted to influence decisions in real time, not only explain them after the fact. That inner restlessness is what led me to take the leap into MTN and into the world of digital payments – a move that stretched me far beyond traditional finance and into fast-paced, innovation-driven environments.”
Joining PayInc
In 2020, Karine joined BankservAfrica (now PayInc) on an initial one-year contract, tasked with strengthening planning, analytics and commercial insight. What began as a short-term assignment quickly evolved into a defining chapter of her career, as she went on to build the FP&A capability from the ground up and embed finance firmly into the organisation’s strategic engine room.
Karine is now the acting CFO at PayInc and leadership for her has shifted from technical excellence to people stewardship. Early in her career, success was defined by being the strongest in the room – the one with the answers, the numbers and the solutions.
But as her responsibility grew, so did her understanding that real leadership is not about being indispensable, but about making others capable. She learnt that organisations do not rise on individual brilliance alone, but on the collective strength of empowered teams.
“One of my biggest lessons has been moving from being the one everyone depends on, to becoming an enabler of success through others,” she reflects.
“It’s about understanding what people are good at, sharpening those strengths and then helping them where they struggle. Leadership stopped being about me proving myself and started becoming about helping others grow into their best versions. That shift completely changed how I see my role.”
Natural kindness
Compassion, however, did not make her leadership easier – it made it harder.
“I am naturally kind,” she says, “but kindness does not mean being a pushover. I can be firm and still be kind. I’ve learnt that strong leadership is not about hardening your heart – it’s about tough decisions made with dignity, fairness and consistency.”
For Karine, success has never been a single destination defined by titles. It is a balance of many spheres moving in harmony – career, family, faith and character. Even as she steps into executive spaces, she remains deliberate about not allowing professional achievement to eclipse personal presence. She measures success not only by what she delivers in the boardroom, but by who she remains at home and in church.
“If I am successful at work but my children feel disconnected from me, then I am not successful,” she says quietly. “If my helper thinks I am the worst person alive, or my family feels neglected, then something is fundamentally wrong. For me, success has to be aligned across every part of my life. The person my team sees at the office must be the same person my family, my church and my home experience. That alignment is what gives me peace.”
Success factors
Asked what her X-Factor for success is, Karine states that this is without question her faith. “I am deeply aware that many of the doors that opened for me were not forced open by strategy or positioning, but by grace. I have seen the hand of God guide my life through seasons where, on paper, I should not have made it through. That awareness keeps me grounded and it shapes how I lead, how I treat people and how I navigate pressure. When things work out in my favour, I don’t see it as entitlement – I see it as stewardship.”
When it comes to networking, Karine does not subscribe to visibility for its own sake. For her, relationships must be authentic or they mean nothing at all. She would rather build 10 meaningful connections than 50 superficial ones. By taking the time to meet people where they are, remembering the small details of their lives, families and journeys, she builds trust naturally. And in that authenticity, doors open – without manipulation, without politics and without her ever needing to become someone she is not.
On a good work plan, for Karine, it always starts with absolute clarity on the strategy and the mandate of the business.
“Once that is clear, the next critical step is defining the right key performance indicators – the things that truly matter,” she states. “Those indicators can be driven by shareholders, regulation, operations or sustainability, but once you know what they are, you build a strong monitoring capability around them. You need to know what ‘good’ looks like, what ‘bad’ looks like, and how quickly things are moving. A good work plan is not just about having numbers on a page – it is about having your finger on the pulse of the business at all times,” she notes.
“The next layer for me is understanding the levers you actually have to influence those outcomes. Once you know the levers, you also know when to act – when something moves into amber, when to escalate and when to intervene decisively. As a finance leader, your real value is being in the room to frame the impact of decisions and to guide the conversation with confidence.”
Overcoming self-doubt
Karine’s greatest regret, she says, has been allowing self-doubt to sit quietly in the background of her success for far too long. Despite an exceptional academic record, professional accolades and repeated moments of being trusted with responsibility beyond her years, she wrestled with impostor syndrome – a persistent inner voice questioning whether she truly belonged in the rooms she was entering.
“What really shifted for me is that I was thrown into the deep end – more than once,” Karine explains. “There were times when I had to walk into boardrooms alone with the numbers and defend them under pressure. That’s when I realised confidence doesn’t come from 40 years of experience – it comes from pitching up, committing to an answer and standing firm in it. When I look back, my regret is not that I had doubts, but that I listened to it for too long. Today, I know that certainty doesn’t require perfection – it requires honesty, preparation and the courage to speak, even when the room is silent and every eye is on you.”
Beyond the office, Karine’s entrepreneurial streak finds expression in equally meaningful ways. From running an events venture to nurturing creative ideas on the side, she has a belief that ambition does not need to be boxed into a single title. She sees a future shaped by purpose – one that may well lead her into broader social entrepreneurship or even a chief executive role where impact stretches beyond profit alone.
She speaks candidly about delegation, support systems and the discipline of being present – whether that is sitting on the floor with her three children after work, trusting her long-standing helper as part of her extended family, or protecting time for her marriage and herself. In a world that often glorifies burnout as commitment, Karine chooses a more intentional rhythm.
