When confidence meets opportunity, magic happens. Razaan Bester is proof of this – and she’s determined to make sure other women are ready to take advantage when the right doors open.
SOME KIDS WONDER about their future careers. Not Razaan: from the time she was just 11 years old in Grade 6, she knew she wanted a future in accounting. Rather than fading, as some dreams do, her conviction grew stronger over time and by Grade 11, every decision she made was informed by her goal of studying at UCT.
It was an unlikely ambition for a girl who hadn’t had much exposure to professionals: ‘For most of us, our teacher was the closest we would get to a professional role model, and if you were wealthy, a doctor,’ she says.
So, what made her so certain that accounting was her calling? ‘As a child, I was driven by the idea that only a very few tenacious individuals stay the course to qualify as a CA. But aside from the challenge, I loved the ideals the profession represents, including discipline, credibility and accountability.’
ACCEPTING ACCOUNTABILITY
These qualities are also what drew her to the public sector. ‘I had a passion for politics from a young age, and completing my articles at the Auditor-General allowed me to live my belief that we need to hold people accountable when they are in charge of public spending,’ Razaan recalls.
Now, in her position as head: financial management at Wesgro (the official tourism trade and investment agency of Cape Town and the Western Cape), Razaan is able to address two of her core commitments: strengthening governance and professionalisation within the public sector and widening access to opportunity, especially for young women who may not yet see themselves represented in boardrooms or senior management positions.
In fact, Razaan joined the organisation precisely so that she could unlock such opportunities. ‘I wanted to see how much impact I could make as a steward of resources, being on “the other side”, as it were,’ she says. She maintains that one of the most important responsibilities associated with her role is ‘making every cent count’ when it comes to taxpayers’ money. She points out that her position is central to Wesgro’s mandate of growing tourism, trade and investment in the province: ‘Sound financial management is critical. It’s not just about numbers and reporting cycles; it’s about trust. It’s my job to ensure that public funds are managed with integrity, transparency and strategic foresight. Trust is key in business, and there is no exception in the public sector. Every decision we take, every financial disclosure we make, is geared towards building and maintaining that trust. Inclusive and sustainable economic growth depends on transparency, stability and accountability. If our agency executes strong governance frameworks consistently, then we can execute our mandate with confidence and unlock opportunities across the province.’ In this way, Razaan sees financial leadership as an enabler of impact.
NO APOLOGIES
‘Confidence’ is a word you’ll hear Razaan repeat frequently, because she understands its importance in a corporate setting – especially for young women. ‘I was in Grade 11 the very first time I entered a corporate. I will never forget it: it had a special sparkle. There was an incredible excitement about everything, from the fact that my name had been given in at reception to the coffee machine!’ The only thing that diminished that sparkle was Razaan’s realisation that there were very few people in the boardroom who either looked, or sounded, like her.
That turned out to be a formative moment which would play out both in her career and in her role as a leader. ‘I will never forget the feeling of possibility I experienced as I entered that corporate,’ Razaan recalls. Wanting to recreate it for more young women, especially from the Cape Flats and townships, she has launched She CAn: an NPC focusing on creating access and optimising opportunity. The organisation focuses on three pillars – career guidance, feminine wellness education and self-empowerment, and confidence building – hosting events where school-age female learners can develop skills and knowledge in these areas. The secret to She CAn is to be found in the first two letters of ‘CAn’ – a reference to the designation, which Razaan hopes to make more accessible to greater numbers of learners, but also to the idea that ‘if she can, I can; if I can then so can she’. ‘Our ethos is grounded in the idea that we can all achieve; we do not need to compete,’ she explains.
This philosophy is reflected in Razaan’s approach to leadership, too. She places significant emphasis on inclusion and representation. ‘I got to where I am thanks to mentors and sponsors, the people who mentioned my name in rooms where I was not present. Now it’s my duty to do the same for the next generation.’
Since she is just 31, Razaan is, in fact, rather close to that generation. This gives her an edge: as she says, she is able to serve as a conduit ‘between the current older generation and the next generation of leaders’. She has embraced this responsibility in her capacity as a representative for SAICA’s Southern Region Council Young CA Network, where she represents the interests of CAs and trainees younger than 35.
All told, then, her mission is to bring the younger generation along with her as she grows, but she is highly cognisant that this is not a simple task.
‘Make no mistake: we’ve made a lot of progress in recent years. However, women are still facing challenges like unconscious bias around leadership readiness, access to sponsorship and the tension between professional ambition and caregiving expectations,’ she says, adding that, like many women, she has experienced internal conflict when her five-year-old daughter’s school events clash with a corporate engagement. Her dream is for corporates to reach a point where women no longer struggle between a quest for excellence, and authenticity. ‘It’s about supporting them visibly and structurally. True transformation is about creating an enabling environment where women at all levels can thrive unapologetically.’
With several accolades to her name (including Wesgro’s 2025 Professional Service Award; the Young Achiever Award at Good Hope FM’s 2025 Warrior Woman Awards and the 2023 ABASA Manager of the Year Award, as well as her graduation from the IWFSA Leadership Programme), there is no doubt about Razaan’s technical competence. Her focus now is on honing influence and strategic impact. Professionally, this means unlocking systems that make the lives of people within her organisation easier, while also ensuring that they add value to the organisation itself.
When it comes to She CAn, it translates to scalability and sustainability, and in her personal capacity, it’s all about creating environments where progression for young women is expected rather than exceptional, where sponsorship is intentional, and where being a woman means that you are able to access a wealth of opportunities without feeling the need to apologise for your presence.
Author
Lisa Witepski
