The East London industrial development zone (Elidz) appointed Babalwa Buwa-Magongwa as its new CFO earlier this month.

Having observed the growth of Elidz in the last 11 years, Elidz CEO Simphiwe Kondlo points out that the organisation felt it was important to bring someone new to head its finance unit in order to bring new ideas.

This comes after Elidz’s focus in its 2013/14 financial year of ensuring incremental and sustained improvement for the attainment of clean administration.

As a result, Kondlo notes that the appointment of Buwa-Magongwa will continue to build on the fundamentals of the financial management framework that the organisation has set out in the last 12 months.

“Her rare skills set as a construction as well as a financial services professional will help position the Elidz finance unit as a strategic enabler for the fulfilment of the Elidz mandate of developing, operating and maintaining infrastructure, while attracting strategic investments for the region,” he adds.

Being a qualified chartered accountant, Buwa-Magogwa will provide strategic and managerial leadership on financial and administration issues necessary to ensure the commercial effectiveness, financial viability and sound corporate governance for the organisation.

Buwa-Magogwa previously worked as a project manager for the Limpopo Section Administration Intervention for the national Department of Public Works, where she headed the turnaround strategy of the Limpopo Department of Public Works.

The Administration Intervention managed to take the Limpopo Department of Public Works from a disclaimer to a qualified audit opinion in the current year Auditor-General regulatory audit.

Buwa-Magogwa has also worked for multinational professional services company PwC, the South African Revenue Service, multinational mining company BHP Billiton and accounting firm Buwa Gasa Gigaba Chartered Accountants.

Along with the appointment of a new CFO, Elidz has also hired accountants, a management accountant, a finance manager, and a service provider for internal audit services.

“All this has been done to strengthen our financial management, internal controls and reporting within the Elidz,” he points out.