Siyamdumisa Vilakazi AGA(SA) was seconded as CFO to the Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB) when the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Ms Thoko Didiza, had to put in place a new team to stabilise the troubled land entity.
Siyamdumisa Vilakazi dreams of a society where ethical behaviour is normalised as opposed to corruption; where South Africans work together as a team, building communities and preparing the youth to thrive in a rapidly changing world.
As the chief financial officer of the Ingonyama Trust Board (ITB) and chairperson of SAICA’s National Public Sector Committee, he is committed to the professionalisation of the public sector. Improvement of public finance management through financial management reforms will result in accountability, transparency, actual performance, and integrity in government, he believes.
After completing his articles at PwC in Durban, Siya joined the Office of the Auditor-General in 2012 where he held several roles, including one as a stakeholder liaison manager where he coordinated all external interactions within the KZN Business Unit. This role gave him a holistic view of the public sector.
‘The Office of the Auditor-General is unique in that it’s a training institution for public sector accounting and auditing professionals,’ he says. ‘Their training programme is an instrumental tool for enabling the achievement of professionalisation of the public sector. For me, being at the Office of the Auditor-General proved to be an invaluable part of my public sector education.’
In April 2021, he was seconded to the ITB by Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, Ms Thoko Didiza, amidst a cry from various stakeholders, including Parliament and the Auditor-General, regarding governance and financial management failures within the entity.
The board administers the trust and its land, measuring nearly three million hectares, or approximately 30% of the land in KwaZulu-Natal. This land is held in trust by the Zulu monarch, King Misuzulu ka Zwelithini, the sole trustee of the Ingonyama Trust.
‘The ITB is a controversial entity,’ Siya says. ‘I believe it is and has always been a social benefit institution that has to be administered for the benefit, material welfare and social well-being of tribes and communities in KZN, but it has never been able to achieve its true potential. Part of the reason I was sent there was to assist in diagnosing and developing change strategies, especially in financial management and governance, to enable stabilisation of the entity in preparation for its transition.’
Both Parliament and the public have questioned the purpose and role of the trust and the board. The entity has in the past come under fire for poor management of its finances, including revenue, by Parliament’s land reform portfolio committee.
‘This has been the most challenging role I have ever had, but we are working to facilitate change, and allow the organisation to fulfil its legal mandate,’ says Siya. ‘As we continue to rectify the wrongs of the past, social development initiatives have to be front and centre of our activities. In KZN, people who have access to land remain poor, and communities with supposed access to land continue not to have the resources required to succeed. The legal mandate of the trust seeks to resolve all these issues. However, governance must first be rectified within the entity.’
The interim board appointed by the Minister has made some progress in stabilising the ITB. For the first time, it received an unqualified audit opinion from the Auditor-General in 2021, and then again in 2022.
‘Clean audits, however, don’t necessarily translate to effective administration. We also need to focus on achieving government’s objectives and ensuring the quality of those achievements,” he says. “This is why there is such an urgent need for the professionalisation of the public sector. The lack of capacity in government is one of its biggest causes of failure.’
Government needs people who are able to design or develop and implement models that support beneficial public policies. At SAICA, Siya chairs a committee that plays a critical role in supporting public sector members through its influence on accounting education, standard-setting and public sector governance. Without knowledgeable and willing professionals who can implement innovative ideas, he says, turning government administration around is just a pipedream.
‘We need qualified and competent people in positions of authority to enable a transformed, professional, ethical, capable and developmental public sector. Unfortunately, accounting, auditing and other professions are more likely to gravitate towards the private sector, leaving government with few skills, if any at all, and those that are already in the public service become stale because of a lack of development initiatives. A public service that works promotes a strong economy. That’s why participation, through rapid professionalisation, is sorely needed. It’s time for us to change the narrative and encourage professionals from different fields to view the public sector as an employer of choice.’
The other element to the incapacity speaks to the lack of will to develop those that are already in the public service to ensure that they are capable and ethical, he adds. ‘It seems no one cares whether government employees are effective or not in their work. The public sector needs to be driven by ethics and values, such that accountability is easy and becomes the order of the day.’
Over and above dealing with skills challenges, for Siya, professionalising the public sector also includes the creation of an environment that is free of intimidation. ‘Due to the normalisation of corruption, and demonisation of ethics, ethical whistle-blowers like Babita Deokaran are gunned down and killed.’
He believes it’s time for principled people everywhere to become activists for what’s right and to have the resolve to change what they see as wrong. In his role at SAICA, he is essentially imploring professionals to start having an increased interest in the administration of government so that we can all contribute to creating the society we want to live in.
Siya lives by his commitment to change and is currently involved in a project to develop a paperless electronic system for the transfer of property ownership. Replacing the outdated manual system and allowing for the electronic preparation, processing and registration of deeds at the deeds registries will enable the registration of large volumes of deeds, clients will be able to sign transfer documents remotely, and people will be able to access the deeds registry electronically. The new system is expected to be rolled out in 2025.
He enjoys working on change management programmes and engaging with many different types of people from all walks of life. This latest project has made him even more conscious of how government touches the lives of every single citizen. At home, Siya is a single parent to his 13-year-old boy who has recently started high school. Not one to ever shy away from hard work, he is also pursuing his interest in law by completing his LLB.
‘In the early 2000s, citizens would have the inconvenience of being in the odd long queue at their municipal office,’ Siya says. ‘Today, the inconveniences are real and frightening. For around six hours per day we have no electricity. That’s why it is all of our business to get involved and to start imagining and rebuilding the society we want.’
