It is widely agreed upon that what South Africa needs is inspiring leaders, most of all in the public sector and at parastatals. That this country is not short of the individuals who have been cut from the right cloth, became once again apparent during our recent meetings with Rofhiwa Irene Singo and Tsholofelo Molefe. These two impressive ladies have made the Chief Financial Officer role their own at the Department of Mineral Resources and at public electricity utility Eskom and both contribute to a better South Africa to the best of their capabilities.
Irene Singo hails from Venda and has an inspiring story to tell about her drive to become a Chartered Accountant (CA), despite the lack of funds for university when she was young. Now in her early fourties, Singo has never let go of that dream and hopes to acquire the coveted title next year. In the mean time, 
however, Singo has raised kids and helped the Deeds Office and the departments of Rural Development and Mineral Resources to improve their accounting standards drastically and steer them away from qualified audit reports. "I call myself 'CFO Clean Audit' and I love making a difference," she says in an interview that will be published on this website in the coming weeks.
An equally impressive story comes from Soweto-born Tsholofelo Molefe, who heads up the finance department at everybody's favourite conversation topic, parastatal Eskom. After an impressive career at IBM, Liberty Life, Absa and FNB, she joined Eskom a few years ago and succeeded Paul O'Flaherty as Financial Director at the beginning of this year. Molefe says she is "passionate about integrated reporting" and has a specific knack for stakeholder relationship management, which at Eskom varies from chatting to major corporates and politicians to rural people that get connected to electricity for the first time in their life. The interview with Molefe is also due on this website later this month.
Top photo: Tsholofelo Molefe (Eskom) and Alex van Groningen (CFO South Africa). Bottom photo: Rofhiwa Irene Singo (Department of Mineral Resources)
If you also would like to share your ideas with the CFO community, you want to be part of the leading CFO South Africa Community or you want to know more about hosting a CFO South Africa event, you are most welcome to get in touch with CFO SA. Please contact Jurriën Morsch at [email protected]
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