Dion Mhlaba is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for RH Bophelo Limited, listed on the JSE. Dion was involved in the establishment of RH Bophelo, the first black owned and managed listed hospital group. Dion became one of the youngest CFO’s, at 31.
RH Bophelo evolved from RH Managers, an FSB accredited Fund Manager with with assets under management of R3,5bn. The company has a focus on new and operating healthcare infrastructure and since its inception has successfully developed and funded projects worth over R5bn across the 9 provinces, about 18 hospitals. The company will provide affordable quality healthcare, increase transformation in the sector, by targeting the low to middle income sectors. This is going to be big.
RH Bophelo’s positioning lends itself to the impending NHI bill.
In 2016/17, Dion worked on a special project with the Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency on how government can structure projects in order to attract private sector funding in order to reduce the backlog in infrastructure through an establishment of a Provincial Infrastructure Fund.
Dion holds a BCom Honors in Accounting from the UJ, and completed his articles with KPMG, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant (CA) in 2010. During the tenure at KPMG, he worked on the audits of Nedbank, IDC, DBSA, Bank of India.
Dion has been involved in the mentorship projects for upcoming CAs, working with students from Mpumalanga, and those studying at Wits and UJ. Our project has assisted many students to gain access into tertiary institutions and raising money for their registration. This led to Dion taking a full time lecturing role at UJ from 2011 to 2013 and his activism for free education for the poor.
In 2013, Dion jointly founded a consulting firm, the business provided training and support to upcoming entrepreneurs on compliance and fund raising.
In 2018, Dion launched Chess tournament at UJ, which will later be expanded to other universities. This program will encourage students to share ideas and socialize with like minded, and will teach students to apply their minds in finding solutions.
Dion was born in a small village in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga. From a family of 6 siblings, a son of a police officer. Dion’s business journey started when he use to sell iceblocks while in primary school. With the highest unemployment in Bushbuckridge of 64.6%, it was clear that Dion had to move to the big city in pursuit of greater opportunities.
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