String of consultants among new appointments to Transnet board
As part of his plan to restructure state-owned entities in South Africa, Public Enterprises Minister Pravin Gordhan has appointed a host of new directors to the board of public-sector freight systems firm Transnet. A number of consultants are among the new appointments, including former Group Chief Executive at Alexander Forbes – Edward Kieswetter.
Transnet is a government-owned firm that acts as the sole custodian of South Africa’s ports, railways, and pipelines. Consistent with most other industries and with the entire business world, the entity is coming under pressure from technological advancement, and is engaging in rapid transformation efforts to maintain a global standing.
This gravitation towards industry 4.0 techniques has coincided with Pravin Gordhan’s drive to reconstruct South Africa’s state-owned enterprises sector, following a year of consecutive scandals that included power entity Eskom. The double-edged transformation necessitates a change of leadership, which has now come about through the appointment of several new directors to the firm’s board.
At the helm, the new Chairperson for the board is Popo Molefe, who has years of public-sector experience including a spell as Chairperson of Prasa (Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa). Other positions of significance held by Molefe include Chairperson of the Morvest Business Group, and Non-Executive Director at several organisations, including the Armaments Corporation of South Africa (Armscor), the Central Energy Fund, the Strategic Fuel Fund, and the Petroleum, Oil and Gas Corporation of South Africa.
A major consulting name among the board of directors is that of Edward Kieswetter – a strategy veteran will over two decades of professional experience. Kieswetter holds an MBA from the Henley Business School and a Master of Commerce from Northwest University, and was previously the Group Chief Executive for Alexander Forbes Holdings – a pan-African financial services firm
His specialties lie in financial business management and leadership in both the public and the private sectors, and he has been a member of several high-profile boards, including the South African Revenue Service, the Committee for Auditor Ethics, the Africa Unity Group, and the Technology Innovation Agency.
Dimakatso Matshoga – who has also been appointed a director at Transnet – is the former CEO at Atafala Consulting based in Johannesburg. Matshoga has also worked with Armscor in the past as Technical Manager, aided by her academic background in Electronic Engineering.
Other representation for the consulting industry comes in the form of Mpho Letlape and Aluwani Ramabulana. Letlape is a former Human Resources Director at IBM, and is an executive advisor to Accenture’s management consulting arm. Ramabulana, meanwhile, is the Founder and CEO at MDZ Fleet Solutions – a professional services firm supporting every stage of the fleet management process.
