After leaving the traditional corporate finance path, Johan Beetge-Rossouw discovered a greater purpose at Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator. Today, the CFO is using finance not only to ensure sustainability, but to help create opportunities for millions of young South Africans by turning strategy, partnerships and financial discipline into lasting social impact.
“I would want my legacy to be that I was part of a collective of brilliant, committed people who helped solve one of South Africa’s defining challenges: youth unemployment. For me, that would be the greatest measure of success, knowing that the work we built outlasted us and created real pathways into the economy for millions of young people.”
That sense of legacy is rooted in a practical view of what it takes to solve youth unemployment. For Johan, the work is about far more than matching job seekers with vacancies. The real challenge lies in identifying and removing the barriers that prevent young people from accessing opportunities in the first place.
This has become part of the philosophy that has shaped Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator’s (Harambee) work over the past 15 years. Rather than expecting young people to overcome every obstacle on their own, the organisation studies the points at which they fall out of the employment pipeline and designs interventions to address them.
“We have to figure out what the barriers to entry are for specific sectors and then find a way to lift those barriers to enable young people to gain entry into the market or access those opportunities. It’s a journey, but it’s so much more rewarding because you know you wake up and you’re part of a collective team trying to solve this challenge.”
Sometimes those barriers are surprisingly simple, but early in Harambee's journey, the organisation discovered that many young people attending assessments had not eaten for days. Others could not afford transport to interviews or lacked appropriate clothing for corporate workplaces. Traditional recruitment processes overlooked these realities, unintentionally excluding capable candidates before they had even been considered.
Instead of expecting applicants to overcome these obstacles alone, Harambee responded differently.
The organisation then ensured that candidates received meals before assessments, partnered with retailers to provide interview clothing, offered transport support and helped young people prepare their CVs and interview skills. These practical interventions significantly improved candidates’ confidence, performance and ability to secure a job.
“We learned that if the environment is calming and relaxing versus one where there is pressure, it changes outcomes. Those are the kind of things we've learned over the years,” says Johan.
That attention to seemingly small details reflects Harambee’s broader philosophy: creating employment at scale requires understanding the lived realities behind unemployment statistics. It is this same philosophy that now underpins the organisation’s wider ecosystem-building work.
Building an ecosystem of opportunity
That ecosystem is most visible today through Harambee’s role in operating and managing SA Youth, the national platform connecting young people with learning, earning and self-employment opportunities. What began as an ambitious idea has evolved into one of South Africa's largest youth employment ecosystems.
The platform now works with more than 3,000 partners and serves in excess of five million young people, connecting employers, government and civil society around a shared objective: reducing youth unemployment.
“What excites me most is scale and network effects. Watching SA Youth grow from a bold concept into a national ecosystem that aggregates opportunities at a scale not previously seen in South Africa has been extraordinary. The opportunity now is to use our refined financial models to accelerate even more pathways for millions of young people, and to keep expanding the reach, resilience and impact of that ecosystem,” Johan says.
Even so, he is quick to point out that scale alone is not enough. Despite enabling more than 1.6 million earning opportunities, he believes South Africa’s youth unemployment crisis demands an even greater collective effort.
“We have facilitated more than 1.6 million earning opportunities for young people in the country. But that's not nearly enough. Impact can only be achieved if we start talking about multiple millions. To do that at scale, you need partnerships.”
Leading through influence, not authority
One of the most distinctive aspects of Johan’s leadership is his belief that meaningful change cannot be achieved through authority alone.
Unlike corporate executives who can implement decisions within their own organisations, Harambee depends on influencing employers, industry bodies and government departments to rethink how they recruit and develop young talent.
That often means persuading organisations to adopt more inclusive hiring practices, even when Harambee has no formal authority over them.
“The hardest part is being in a room where you need to influence, but you have no authority. We have learned that this is about partnerships. We need to work with other organisations, government and the private sector to make sure everyone is aligned. Youth unemployment is everyone's responsibility, not something the government or business can solve alone,” he says.
It is an approach rooted in collaboration rather than competition. Rather than positioning Harambee as the sole solution, the organisation increasingly sees itself as an orchestrator, bringing together employers, funders, industry associations and government around shared outcomes. That collaborative mindset also shapes Johan's work as CFO.
While governance and financial discipline remain non-negotiable, much of his time is spent helping secure long-term funding, aligning stakeholder expectations and ensuring the organisation has the resources to achieve its ambitions.
“The biggest challenge is managing multiple stakeholder expectations. We need to ensure funders' expectations are met, the organisation delivers on its commitments, and every rand translates into measurable impact. It's about making sure everything stays aligned.”
Turning numbers into stories
Within that role, Johan remains deeply committed to financial discipline, but he believes the finance profession has evolved beyond technical expertise alone.
Today’s CFO, he argues, must be able to translate financial information into compelling narratives that inspire confidence and demonstrate impact.
“I’ve gotten really good as a finance person to tell stories. You need to be able to take the numbers and convert them into a story and you need to do that convincingly,” he says.
That storytelling ability is particularly important in the social impact sector, where funders increasingly expect evidence that financial investments deliver measurable outcomes.
For Johan, every budget, funding proposal and financial model ultimately connects back to a young person seeking an opportunity.
It is this perspective that helps him navigate the uncertainty that comes with leading finance in a mission-driven organisation.
“When things become chaotic, I ground myself in the reality of what we are here to do. A difficult day in the boardroom pales in comparison to the daily challenges faced by a young person trying to break into the economy. That perspective quickly resets my focus, restores clarity and reminds me that our work must keep moving forward,” he says.
Looking beyond the balance sheet
It is this blend of discipline, storytelling and perspective that keeps Johan optimistic about what lies ahead after nearly a decade at Harambee.
He believes the lessons the organisation has learned, from understanding barriers to employment to building partnerships across sectors, provide a blueprint for creating even greater impact.
At the same time, he remains realistic about the scale of South Africa's unemployment challenge. Sustainable progress, he says, will depend on businesses becoming more intentional about inclusive hiring and recognising the immense potential of young people.
“If we can remove the barriers that make it difficult, costly or risky for South African businesses to find, hire and retain inclusive youth talent, we unlock a powerful engine for national economic growth. The challenge is not a lack of potential; it is the friction in the system.”
That conviction extends to the advice he offers young professionals.
“Don't just master the numbers; master the business. Understand how your organisation creates impact, how users experience its products or services, and how to translate complex financial realities for people who do not have an accounting background. The best CFOs are not only technically strong, they are exceptional communicators who can turn financial insight into strategic action.”
As Johan looks to the future, he hopes his contribution will not be measured only by financial discipline, organisational growth or the scale Harambee has already achieved. Instead, he wants his legacy to live in the pathways that remain open for young people long after individual leaders have moved on.
“I hope they say that I did more than manage a balance sheet responsibly, that I used my position to help build a faster, fairer highway to provide opportunities for the young people of our country. Ultimately, I would want my leadership to be remembered not only for financial discipline, but for helping turn that discipline into access, dignity and lasting economic possibility.”
