Success? It’s all in the numbers

She is the epitome of the essential new breed of South African woman, and a woman who courageously takes things in her stride.

Like coming from a rural Swaziland upbringing to earn several degrees and diplomas; being appointed to more professional and business boards than most people would be able to remember; or receiving multiple awards and accolades for her achievements as a woman, her role in business, social development and in empowerment.

She was also the first black woman partner and chairperson of Deloitte Southern Africa – one of the big four accounting firms in South Africa. And she became the first black woman to be appointed president of Business Unity South Africa (Busa) in May this year.

That appointment was first slammed noisily by Jimmy Manyi, president of the Black Management Forum (BMF), as being against transformation – an outburst that was then promptly followed by an abrupt about-turn, a personal apology and a promise of support.

All of which she again simply took in her stride, shrugging it off as being “unfortunate” and a “disappointment” over which she would not have any sleepless nights.

The woman in question is, of course, the phenomenal Futhi Mtoba.

At the time of her Busa appointment and BMF’s outcry, Mtoba told the Mail & Guardian in an interview that “we need to make the front-page news for what we have achieved, how we have contributed to economic growth in this country and what we are doing to stamp out corruption or how we are role-modelling transformation”.

This pretty much sums her up.

Having climbed to the top job at Deloitte was something akin to climbing Mount Everest in a world that was previously staunchly and conservatively dominated by pale male accountants.

While some businessmen and others prefer to make much noise and become embroiled in controversies in their narrowly focused pursuit of leadership positions, Mtoba is one of those who puts her shoulder to the wheel and quietly goes about doing what needs to be done.

And while quietly climbing the mountains of her career, she has always found time to give as much to others. Her social interests and commitments cover the full range, from children to women to business and to global development initiatives.

In 2006, as a testament to Mtoba’s standing locally and internationally, then Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan appointed her to the board of the world’s largest voluntary citizenship initiative, the United Nations Global Compact.

It had been launched in 2000 to bring together UN agencies with governments, labour, business and other sectors of civil society globally as the world’s most inclusive voluntary initiative to promote responsible corporate citizenship and to play an essential role in achieving the UN’s Millennium Development Goals through a more sustainable and inclusive global economy.

To be appointed to the board of this prestigious body, each of its select group of 20 members – which includes 10 business representatives, four from business associations and labour groups, and four from civil society organisations – has to have a proven and long-standing record of commitment to the Global Compact’s mission and its advancement of universal principles regarding the environment, human rights, labour standards, and the fight against corruption.

The Compact’s participants include over 2 500 companies from more than 90 countries.

Among other commitments and interests, Mtoba has a strong dedication to upholding academic excellence in tandem with developing the skills of young South Africans, a commitment that saw her serve on the board of the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation, which is focused on job creation through education.

The Foundation funds and trains university students, also offering promising candidates from disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity of completing their secondary school education at leading institutions where they can realise their full potential.

In addition, Mtoba served as the chairperson of the Council of the University of Pretoria.

As one of the pioneers of the transformation of the accounting profession in South Africa, she is a past president of the Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants of Southern Africa (Abasa), where she was the driving force behind the establishment of the Nkuhlu Subvention Fund, which subsidises the salaries of black chartered accountants who commit to lecturing at the previously disadvantaged universities.

A further measure of the woman is her involvement as the chairperson and trustee of the Women’s Development Business Trust, a socio-economic development programme that aims to empower poor women by providing them with access to reliable financial services, appropriate business skills, technical support and information and communication technology training.

Her road to success has indeed been a long one, and not always easy.

Ntombifuthi Temperance Mtoba was born in Swaziland in 1955 and raised along with nine siblings. When once asked who her role models were, she had no hesitation in singling out her parents. Indeed, it was from her father, she says on the African Success website (www.africansucess.org), a database of successful African personalities, that she received her most valuable lesson in life.

“My father, who worked for the Department of Agriculture, insisted his children – and especially his daughters – should be financially independent when they grew up. Five of my six sisters are graduates, including two lawyers, a medical doctor, an agronomist, and a master’s graduate,” she said.

Mtoba herself always had a penchant for figures and economics and enrolled at the University of Botswana and Swaziland for a BA degree in Economics. She later moved to South Africa where she obtained several more qualifications including becoming a chartered accountant, and obtaining a higher diploma in Banking Law (Rand Afrikaans University); BCompt (Hons) (University of South Africa); as well as a BA (Econ) (Hons) degree from the University of South Africa.

She began her professional career under the mentorship of the respected Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu in the latter’s chartered accountancy firm in association with Hoek & Wiehahn in Umtata.

Despite entering the profession at a time when the reigning political dispensation in South Africa made it almost impossible for a black person – let alone a black woman – to advance in business, she was accepted into Deloitte & Touche in 1988. She quickly rose through the ranks until she was made a partner, later becoming the chairperson of the renamed Deloitte Southern Africa.

Of that she said: “When I joined the firm, I was fortunate that we had visionary leaders who already had a programme in place to train black accountants before it became a legal imperative.

“Transformation is a slow process. One is dealing with attitudes which are an integral part of people’s upbringing, beliefs and habits and which cannot simply be jettisoned overnight — and that applies to people of all races.”

Meanwhile, Mtoba became fully involved in her demanding career and was soon being appointed to one board after the other. But despite the immense demands on her time and talents, when asked some time ago what she regarded as being the most important things in her life, she narrowed them down to her medical doctor husband and two children; the importance of corporate governance and ethics in business; and the advancement of black people in the accounting profession.

Her transformation credentials are impeccable, contrary to the outcry of the BMF over her appointment to the top job at Busa. But what did stand out is that while there were wide expectations within Busa, the BMF and elsewhere that the next chairperson would be well connected to the government in order to uplift the role of Busa and its interaction with the government, Mtoba was the first to admit she had no special access to the government.

In fact, the man she beat to the post was the successful young businessman Sandile Zungu, who is well connected to President Jacob Zuma.

But Mtoba believes Busa’s access to and co-operation with the government is more about structures than individuals; and she believes that President Zuma, when he attended Busa’s annual general meeting, extended an open-door policy to the organisation.

Nonetheless, according to Mtoba, transformation was a process that Deloitte began in the early 1980s with a vision “to be a fully transformed company representative of the communities [it serves]”, with significant progress having been made.

By 2004, following the appointment of nine black partners, 16% of the firm’s partners and 38% of its executive leadership were black. Today, Deloitte has 70 black partners out of 242. Given these facts and Mtoba’s own rise in the firm, she therefore rightly countered that the BMF’s remarks about her were way out of line.

In her typical fashion of taking things in her stride and getting on with the job, and despite all the media attention, she chose not to be drawn into the controversy around the BMF and Manyi’s remarks. One report quoted her as saying it would amount to “using energy unnecessarily”.

However, in recognition of her achievements and standing in business and elsewhere, with her election as Busa president she received the votes from both the majority of black and white business entities, while the Eastern Cape branch of the BMF took a completely different line to its parent body, hailing Mtoba’s appointment as a symbol of transformation. Others such as Abasa and the Banking Association of South Africa also supported Mtoba’s appointment.

Manyi and the BMF quickly saw which way the political and business winds were blowing though, and issued a corrective statement saying it wished to clarify its viewpoint on what it termed “the Busa presidential furore”.

In its statement, the BMF said among others things: “The BMF expresses regret at the confusion following the statement intended to decry the Goliath approach by big business in the Busa presidency race.” It added that it was “unfortunate that a seasoned transformation agent like Mtoba got caught up in the crossfire” and that “Futhi’s courageous strides in transformation work are out there for all to see.”

The controversy aside, Mtoba sees her role at Busa as continuing to strive for business unity across racial lines, but also between large, established businesses and the small, developing business sector. For her, the challenge is much more focused on the latter.

Among her many other roles, appointments and accolades, she counts being chosen as Businesswoman of the Year in 2004; serving on the boards of the Financial Services Advisory Board and the Money Laundering Advisory Council Board; being convener of the East Central and Southern African Federation of Accountants Nepad Committee; serving as a board member of the Nepad Business Group, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, and the Public Accountants’ and Auditors’ Board; serving on the Audit Committee of the South African Reserve Bank; being the first woman national president of Abasa; leading the Black Business Council Economic Research Unit and being a member of the Black Business Council Presidential Working Group, which provided policy input to the government’s macro-economic framework; being a director and chairperson of the Investment Committee of the Public Investment Corporation, with assets under management of R400 billion; being a member of the financial sector working group responsible for formulating the Financial Sector Transformation Charter; being chosen as the Top Black Business Personality by Top 300; and being chosen as the International Woman of the Year by the Organization of Women in International Trade.

Indeed, a South African woman for all seasons, and any challenge. ▲

Stef Terblanche