From an early start in audit to work across finance transformation, finance operate and other sectors, Kavita Vanmali CA(SA) has stayed focused on how systems work, where they fail and what can be improved. She speaks about chartered accountancy as a broad foundation rather than a narrow path, and believes leadership starts with making it easier for others to ask questions. She also embraces AI and wants to make it real for CFOs. Curious and direct, Vanmali brings the same approach to business and the realities of working parenthood alike.
At the start of her career at Deloitte in 2004, Kavita Vanmali’s first audit client was in the telco sector. That was the year South Africa’s first commercial 3G network was launched. The Nokia 3300 and Motorola RAZR V3 were everywhere. Vanmali wanted to understand how it all worked. What made a cell phone call possible? What systems sat behind it? What controls had to be in place? ‘I’ve always had an inquiring mind,’ she says. ‘I have a need to learn and understand.’ That was how she began to specialise in technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) advisory. Today, she’s a Partner in the Audit and Assurance at Deloitte Africa, leading finance operate and specialising in digital finance transformation.
Vanmali’s career makes a bigger point about the profession, which she believes many students still misunderstand. Too often, she says, school-leavers assume the CA(SA) route comprises three years of audit and then life as an auditor. For her, that misses the point. Articles build technical skill, but they also open doors, expose young professionals to different industries, and show them how organisations really work.
One of the profession’s biggest strengths is its range. Vanmali sees the CA(SA) qualification as a foundation. ‘You can be the CHRO, you can become the CEO, you can take on pretty much any role in a business,’ she says. In her view, its greatest advantage lies in the broader grounding it gives people in leadership and problem-solving.
That was also true in her own career. Her move beyond pure audit began with a clear understanding of what a strong control environment should look like, and how often clients did not have that. ‘I started to see where the advisory gap was,’ she says, ‘and that we should be coming up with the solution.’
THOUGHTS ON AI
The real value of AI is practical, Vanmali says. Never mind the hype, the point is to see where finance teams are losing time and then use AI as a strategic advisor to the business.
‘In Deloitte’s finance transformation work, which starts with talking to CFOs about pain points and identifying where AI can genuinely help,’ she says. ‘One example is a secure internal tool that lets accountants search company policies and technical guidance quickly, instead of paging through manuals and standards. Another is using AI to pull faster insights from financial data rather than waiting days for the usual analysis process to run its course. It’s really about finding realistic areas in finance where you can actually use an AI assistant,’ she says.
AFRICAN TELCOS HAVE A RESPONSIBILITY
Connectivity is the baseline for participation in work, education, healthcare and modern citizenship. ‘That puts pressure on Africa’s telecoms sector to make access cheaper and more widely available, even as legislation changes and infrastructure differs from one market to the next.’
She stresses that solutions cannot simply be imported into African countries and expected to work. They have to be adapted to local conditions. She speaks about building ‘skills within our own soil’ and making sure digital tools match the quality of connectivity, the needs of different sectors and the realities on the ground. ‘What works in Waterfall may not work in a rural town.’
Vanmali is as focused on people as she is on systems. ‘Our work depends on relationships, managing teams, drawing information out of clients and building trust
under pressure.’
LEADING WOMEN IN TECH
Many young women say they hesitate to join tech discussions not because they lack ability, but because the conversation is often saturated with jargon they don’t fully understand. Vanmali makes a point of helping her junior female colleagues feel confident enough to walk into a meeting and speak the language of the industry. At Deloitte, she says, that’s a key part of leading women in tech.
It’s not about being perfect; it’s about having permission. Women entering the sector need leaders who make it visibly acceptable not to know everything. ‘If I’m uncertain about something, I ask,’ she says. ‘And if they hear me ask a question, then they know it’s okay for them to do that too. It’s our job to create an environment where other people feel able to learn openly.’
Vanmali recalls coming back from maternity leave and realising how little thought had been given to what working mothers actually need. ‘There was no proper, hygienic place to express milk. Other mothers were doing this in the bathroom, or even in their car. I used those conversations to push for practical changes to support women returning to work after having a baby, including a private mothers’ room where mothers can store milk safely, which we now have.’
These experiences have influenced the way Vanmali thinks about work and home. She prefers the term ‘work/life integration’ because, in reality, there’s no balance. ‘It all has to happen,’ she says. ‘So it’s about integrating everything into my day. One calendar, one system, everything in one place.’ By being open about school pickups and the logistics of family life, she’s shown younger women around her that this was possible, and acceptable, too.
STANDING UP, SHOWING UP
Vanmali does not believe in the idea of one perfect mentor guiding a career from start to finish. In her experience, mentorship is more layered than that. Different leaders helped her in different ways at different points. ‘One might open doors, another might push you to think differently, and another might show you how to lead. Over time, I took those different lessons and built my own way of working.’
She concludes: ’Support matters, but so does making your ambition visible. Leaders need to know you are willing to take on more, try something new and step into opportunity when it comes. You have to have leadership and mentors that believe in you,’ she says, ‘but you need to also come to the party.’
No problem without a solution
‘Probably my ability to get things done.’ That’s Vanmali’s answer when asked what people underestimate about her. She’s persistent and refuses to accept dead ends. ‘There’s always got to be a solution, and there must be a way.’
A mindset like that usually comes from a mix of personality and habit. Some people are naturally more curious and more persistent. In psychology, this is often linked to a strong sense of agency – the feeling that you can act on a problem rather than just put up with it. You see it in people who notice when something still does not make sense and keep probing until it does. They test different ways through a problem rather than accepting the first blockage, and they tend to deal with muddled processes instead of working around them. What drives that is a low tolerance for loose ends, combined with a belief that most problems become manageable once you understand them properly and break them into parts.
Author
Monique Verduyn
