Sbonelo Cyril Madiba is a senior finance specialist within the Absa Group’s Financial Control unit with a specific focus on retail and business banking. His career experience has been in the banking and financial services industry across auditing, investment banking, finance and change. This includes international secondments to Boston and Chennai, the latter where he developed and delivered a month-long training programme for colleagues. A graduate of Absa’s Corporate and Investment Banking talent programme, Cyril has played an instrumental role in pivotal projects such as the Absa/Barclays separation programme.
Cyril’s passion for youth development is evident in the initiatives he is involved with. He is the chairperson of the Cyril Ramaphosa Education Trust (CRET) Advisory Board, which provides advisory proposals on strategic and operational objectives to ensure the organisation has an even bigger impact in society. CRET, a partner entity of the Cyril Ramaphosa Foundation, assists students from disadvantaged backgrounds with funding for tertiary studies, and provides holistic support. One of his achievements in his role as chair was being directly responsible for a significant monetary donation towards CRET following a moving speech for holistic student support programmes at one of the foundation’s events. Cyril has shared a number of platforms with the Foundation Chair and President of South Africa, the honourable Cyril Ramaphosa.
He is a founding member of the fund set up by CRET alumni as a way of giving back that has already supported two students with tertiary education funding and is part of CRET’s mentorship programme. Through the Endunamoo School of Accounting and in his personal capacity, he mentors aspiring chartered accountants on their journey to qualification.
Cyril a certified life coach and founder of The Growth Switch, an organisation which assists students and young professionals with academic, career and personal development growth insights. The initiative was born from the realisation that there are critical soft skills that the education system does not teach. The material is shared through online videos, with the organisation launching one on one coaching soon for a more personal encounter.
He is a published author under the pen name Abidam Liryc, having released two books as part of the I’m Not Supposed To Be Here series on Amazon.com, which is based on his remarkable life story.
Cyril shows exemplary leadership in such a way that it is not just what he is − it is who he is, as depicted by his first name Sibonelo, which means ‘example’ in IsiZulu.
