As CFO of Metrobus, Luyanda Gidini brings a refreshing blend of creativity, precision and discipline to the financial helm of Johannesburg’s largest public transport company.
Metrobus CFO Luyanda Gidini might have had a knack for numbers, but he’s also scored a few tries on the rugby field too. “I was quite active back in high school, played first team rugby, athletics, chess, participated in public speaking and loved performing arts,” he says.
It was only when he got older that Luyanda realised he was much more of a behind-the-scenes type of person. He admits he wasn’t an exceptional student, but he applied himself, which came through strongly in his academic results – allowing him to pursue an accounting degree after high school.
“My high school friends were also into accounting and well-aware of the very few black CAs at the time,” Luyanda notes.
But as selflessness goes, nothing compares to Luyanda’s mother’s ultimate sacrifice of selling their home to pay for her children’s university studies. But through his mother’s ultimate display of a superwoman, Luyanda can today call himself a proud Witsie.
“We’ve been through the fire together as a family and one thing I know for sure is that my mother is very proud of my achievements,” says Luyanda. “Especially because public service for any professional is not easy. It takes a lot to survive in this environment with all your values, integrity and ethics still intact.”
A whole new world
Luyanda admits that despite having been raised in the city, the university experience was quite an eye-opening one. “You find yourself surrounded by people from different countries and walks of life, and quickly realise how small the world you had gotten used to living in was. This experience was what also led to my passion for travelling – to broaden my thinking,” he says.
Luyanda suggests that high school leavers take a gap year, and even travel abroad (if resources permit) – to understand themselves better as individuals, before committing to a profession that will define the rest of their lives.
“I’ll admit, I didn’t ace my way through university, it was difficult, even qualifying as a CA,” he points out. “But my mother's words always stayed in the back of my mind: ‘If you give up when you’re so close to the finish line, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life’. Obtaining his degree was the first step, but becoming a qualified CA was Luyanda’s ultimate goal.
Fast-forward to many successful years of public service at the National Treasury, Metropolitan Trading Company (MTC), and now Metrobus, Luyanda had that insatiable itch once again – giving back. As such, he planned a huge surprise for his mother – her 60th birthday was approaching and Luyanda wanted to make it one to remember.
“I had to convince my mother to have lunch with me and the location was conveniently near the local Mercedes dealership,” Luyanda remembers with a smile. “She had no clue what was about to happen and when one of the sales reps came over to tell her what was happening, she nearly fell off her chair. And as we did the quintessential car reveal, she started hyperventilating in disbelief.”
But her panic was quickly replaced with pure joy. You could say Luyanda was over the moon – even more than his mother. This was something he’d always wanted to do!
From clean audits to a clean bill of health
After completing his accountancy studies, Luyanda realised that he didn’t want to take the audit route. “I could’ve gone into financial management or audit, but having had conversations with my friends who were in audit and [seeing] how miserable they were, I knew audit wasn’t for me,” he says.
“At the time, financial management in banking would’ve been ideal, but I was drawn to the National Treasury because I’ve always heard people complaining about how the government did things poorly, but rather than complain like everyone else, I was eager to see how I could make a difference,” he explains.
“I also saw a skills gap in the market, there weren’t a lot of properly qualified financial directors in government or CAs, plus the national treasury programme offered great exposure, placing you in municipalities and treasuries, and a good opportunity to learn new skills,” he says.
The exposure landed Luyanda an acting CFO role at the Metropolitan Trading Company.
“However, being a public sector CFO isn’t easy, the road to a clean audit is a gruelling one, where you navigate paying suppliers on time (which sounds simple in theory), but there’s no outmanoeuvring bureaucracy,” Luyanda notes. “You need to be resilient, have thick skin, remain focused and steer away from the politics when you’re playing in this arena.”
That’s exactly what it took for Luyanda to navigate the challenges that came with replacing an old IT system at Metrobus. At the time, the City of Johannesburg had resolved that no city company would purchase a new ERP system, as another software company had already been appointed to roll it out across the companies for uniformity and easier consolidation – a project that stalled!
Things got even worse for Luyanda and his team because that old system crashed – just weeks before they had to submit their financial statements. “We lost all our data and tried to recover it to no avail, which also meant not submitting financial statements on time, resulting in non-compliance. We had to recreate everything onto a new system with the assistance of a reputable audit firm. [We] submitted it to the AG, and managed to get an unqualified audit,” he recalls.
Getting a clean audit is one thing, but how does Luyanda do a personal audit of himself? At the beginning of the year, Luyanda made a promise to himself to prioritise his mental and physical health: from regular health checks to mandatory psychology visits. But to keep his mind sharp, Luyanda also decided to complete his MBA this year.
“This [is the] only vessel you have,” he notes. “God won’t give you another one so best take it. Take care of your body because that’s the only house you’ll have for the rest of your life and where your soul resides.”
