From grants manager to CFO, all it took was a leap of faith and the belief that leaving a permanent position for a contractual job can be the path to fulfilling your dreams.
When you ask a lot of people about being raised and moulded by their grandparents, they are usually referring to their grandmothers. They are their grandmothers’ children. But for Ncikazi Kabi, it is her loving grandfather, whom she affectionately calls Dad, who raised her. She has always taken his advice, and it has helped her through many challenges.
“I went home once, and my dad advised me to take commercial or financial subjects. I had a mixed bag of subjects, including home economics, biology, physical sciences, etc. I would drop a subject each year as I progressed in high school. I was one of the top students in accounting and mathematics in high school,” Ncikazi elaborates.
“Dad advised me to take commercial subjects. When we got to Grade 10, I had to choose a subject stream. We were asked to queue to be considered for each stream. There were too many learners in that class. As memory serves me, they cut the line for the commercial class two learners before me,” she adds.
Almost as though we are in that moment again, Ncikazi becomes emotional as she details how she got to be admitted in the class of her dreams. “I was hurt. I went to her class and told her that I want to be in her class. She told me that the class is full. I insisted and I explained to her that there was nothing else I saw myself doing except for being in that commerce class.
“The class was full of other learners. I cried. I was in tears as I stated my case, and I told them that I don’t care what they think of me. The learners were busy laughing at me. What I knew was: I wanted to be in that class. I had to make my dad’s dream a reality, as he had strongly advised me to take that stream of subjects.”
Character development and determination were already showing. “The teacher eventually agreed to include me. After that, the school even saw the need to expand the commerce subject class and made it two classes,” she says with a smile.
The three-year journey was a build-up to her matric year where Ncikazi had to start thinking of a career to follow.
“When I got to Grade 12, I had to decide where to go. The BCom degree was an obvious choice. But what would my life be beyond this degree? Then I came across the chartered accounting career path. I remembered the career fairs we had at school and how they explained what it would take to become a CA,” she explains.
It was time to complete her BCom studies, not an easy task. She explains: “In my third year, I was introduced to auditing as a subject. I struggled with it. But I fell in love with auditing. As life would have its way, I ended up in an audit firm.
“After the completion of my articles, I joined the Auditor-General of South Africa’s (AGSA’s) office. I made progress and ended up being an audit manager for about three years.
“I kept asking myself the question: what’s next? I had ambitions to become a senior manager too. But then I thought to myself, how about I move out of this office and explore other opportunities out there? I really wanted to be a CFO at that point. But the odds were stacked against me. They wanted a significant number of years of experience, and you also needed to be in an executive C-suite position already. “
There was an opening at Chieta in 2022 for a grant manager, but it was for a three-year contract. “I told my husband that I was interested in applying for the post at Chieta. But I wasn’t sure of leaving a permanent position for a fixed contractual job. He emphasised that there was nothing to lose. You don’t know what might happen in three years,” Ncikazi explains.
She took a leap of faith and secured the position. Three months later, Chieta had a vacancy for a CFO, and Ncikazi was considered for this post. She was appointed as the acting CFO for nine months, and in that period, she produced the organisation’s first clean audit after 5 years. On 1 June 2023, she was officially appointed as the CFO.
“It is a combination of hard work, dedication, and God’s grace. I have been fortunate enough to have at least one person who believed in me at all critical moments of my journey. I always had someone pushing me and showing strong belief in my abilities and capabilities,” she says.
Education, purpose and clear goals are the building blocks of Ncikazi’s working formula of success. She explains, “When I was in the AG’s office in the Eastern Cape, my then manager sternly reminded us that she does not want anyone who is not studying in her team, nor someone who does not know what they want in their life. I had to be clear about what I wanted in life and being a CFO has always been part of my career goals.”
When it comes to leading others, Ncikazi is aware that people are different and so are their circumstances. “I think as a leader, there is no single leadership style that I am accustomed to. I am very adaptive. What I know stands out with me is the fact that I am very empathetic. I encourage my team members to learn from their mistakes and not repeat them over and over again.
“We need to manage expectations well. What also assists is that we are flexible. We are currently working on a hybrid model, which is also not cast in stone. If a line manager is happy with his or her team working from home for the whole week and they get the desired results, I am happy.”
As her career continues to blossom, Ncikazi remains forever grateful for her dad’s guidance and wisdom as a little girl. She is aware that her life has always been anchored by the opinion of her father, who is the personification of the Chinese proverb, “To know the road ahead, ask those who are coming back.”
