Wesgro CFO Sandiso Gcwabe, 2024 winner of the Transformation and Empowerment Award at the CFO Awards, describes himself as principle-driven and is a firm believer that the right organisation with the right leader is key to being a success.
Sandiso says he has always had an inclination for numbers, having done accounting since junior secondary school. But it was a SAICA Thuthuka workshop in Grade 11 that opened up the possibility of a chartered accountant career. “And from that day, it became a life pursuit of mine until I qualified,” he says.
Being nominated for the CFO award was a major milestone for him, Sandiso adds. “While I’ve been honoured with previous nominations as a public sector CFO, this particular recognition carries deeper meaning. It affirmed the calibre of leadership within the public sector, especially considering how many of us were benchmarked alongside our peers in the private sector.”
And Sandiso is keen to show that working in the public sector can be just as rewarding as the alternative. “It’s important that young professionals understand that they can build highly successful and fulfilling careers in the public sector,” he says.
“Public sector CFOs drive impact at scale, and it’s important that their contributions are recognised as being equally valuable – not lesser – than those in the private sector.”
Born in Nqadu Location in Willowvale, rural Eastern Cape, he completed his junior schooling in a rural setting before moving to Msobomvu township in Butterworth where he completed high school, about 110 km north of East London. From high school he moved on to UCT in the Mother City. “I think my career has also been about those big transitions,” he said, referring to the jumps from rural to township to world-class institution.
After completing his studies at UCT, he joined the Auditor General (AG) where he completed his articles. He stayed there for three years, getting into a managerial role and then moved to a municipality in Saldanha.
New challenges
“Joining the municipality presented a meaningful challenge. It was an opportunity to demonstrate how good governance, when effectively applied, directly drives positive outcomes for communities. Good governance isn’t just a compliance exercise – it’s a catalyst for real impact,” he says. “As an auditor, you write a lot of reports about how municipalities ought to be doing things better and you get challenged that you don’ t understand the context, and that if we had to transition to the other side, we’d understand why things don’t work the way we often beseech them to.”
He stayed in Saldanha for four years before moving back to Cape Town to take up an opportunity as CFO at the Western Cape Liquor authority, a move that reunited him with his family in Cape Town after getting married earlier that year.
The Liquor Authority was his first CFO role and did not come without challenges. “It was an organisation that was in transition. It had governance challenges and those challenges were impacting how it was viewed by clients and stakeholders. I remember when I joined, I was surprised to learn that there was a formal review to fold the entity within the department because questions were being asked about the value of having an independent entity,” he recalls.
“As a CFO, you don’t want to be the last CFO of an entity,” he chuckles, “so I thought I will show the clients and stakeholders the value of this entity. Then Covid-19 hit.”
“I started in December 2019 and Covid-19 lockdowns hit in March 2020 and despite the challenges it posed, it gave us a sheltered environment to look inwardly. We resolved the governance challenges, we professionalised the finance team that was there and we started introducing more professional competencies across the authority. And we digitalised our processes, introducing efficiencies. Those things all drove the turnaround,” he adds.
“When I started with the authority the license administration processes were manual, when you applied you had to print all the documents, go to the liquor authority in Bellville, even if you were somewhere like George. When I left, we had a mechanism online where people could manage their own licences and renew them online. So we introduced efficiencies for compliant businesses, but also held non-compliant businesses accountable as they had to justify why they should be allowed to continue to hold a licence, considering the harms their conduct was causing in communities. The turnaround was quick – easier because of the size of the authority – and I felt that within a space of three years I had put the entity where it needed to be.”
An exciting journey
It was around this time that Wesgro – the official tourism, trade and investment promotion agency for Cape Town and the Western Cape – was looking for a new CFO.
“The challenge came up and I thought maybe it’s time to transition again, to attempt the next turnaround,” he said.
He started at Wesgro in January 2023 and says it has been an exciting journey.
“It has taken me to an exciting space,” he says. “The Liquor Authority focused on regulating to reduce alcohol-related harms, whereas Wesgro has an economic growth mandate. This required a transition but not a huge one because as a chartered accountant, that’s my training background,” he says.
Sandiso also highlights his big wins at Wesgro.
“Wesgro achieved its first clean audit in five years, a milestone underpinned by a renewed tone from the top on performance and compliance; a policy refresh across financial, SCM, and performance management areas; the professionalisation of the finance team, with enhanced technical capability; the establishment of Monitoring & Evaluation and Internal Control units; and notably, there were no audit findings on SCM, affirming compliance excellence.”
Sandiso mentions that by introducing digital solutions, both the cost to serve and the time to deliver was reduced, pleasing everyone. These gains support faster execution and responsiveness across the agency. “That,” he says, “is one of the benefits of good governance. Once you silence the noise around governance, you are able to focus on strategy. You find that if you have governance failures, that tends to consume most of the conversations at exco or board level. Once that is handled – and it’s not even a discussion point – it frees up time to focus on strategy.”
He adds that the agency now is more strategic and as a CFO, he can support the strategy rather than just being there as a governance arm. “For me this has been the biggest win I could deliver to the CEO… to give space to focus on thinking about the strategy and have a finance team that is able to support the development of the strategy as well as the execution.”
Finding the right leader
Speaking of the CEO, Sandiso has another piece of advice to youngsters considering joining the public sector, or the private for that matter – consider who the leader is and choose the organisation with the right leadership. “Many of the organisations that are in trouble in the public sector, what they often require are skills and competencies, especially at a leadership level,” he adds.
“If you’re able to find the right organisation with the right leader, you’re well set up for success. For instance, I have the privilege of working with Wrenelle Stander, the Wesgro CEO. I don’t see her as my boss, I see her as a mentor. When I read up on her I said ‘This is a person I want to learn from’. She joined about a year before me, she was brought in to turn the organisation around. Once you get that right, you are given space to be able to make meaningful change.”
A Kaizer Chiefs and Chelsea soccer fan who guards his weekend time fiercely, Sandiso, describes himself as “a principle-driven and God-fearing man” and is a father to “three beautiful kids”, the oldest of whom is autistic.
“I often say if it wasn’t for the ‘challenge’ of having an autistic child, I wouldn’t be a CFO, I wouldn’t be the person I am. The level of responsibility that navigating the autism spectrum, seeking support, and adapting to unique needs of my child has taught me in my personal life, has carried through to my professional life. Learning to navigate that complex situation, you must have a more adaptable mindset that is resilient, knowing that no matter how bad things may appear, I’m the only hope to that child (together with his mother and our support structures) and I must find the path forward. This resilient spirit has shaped how I do things both personally and professionally.”
And while some days are better than others, Sandiso sees it as a blessing.
“My son has shaped who I am as a professional. I’ve been more responsible and I’ve understood what it means to be of service to someone, which is why it’s easier for me to perform in a role where I’m of service to others.”
