After acquiring his skills from the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), Thakhani Makhuvha has been appointed as the Limpopo Economic Development Agency’s (LEDA) new Chief Executive Officer as of 1 November.
Makhavhu holds a Master’s degree in financial management from the University of Johannesburg, an Honours Bachelor in accounting science from Unisa, a Bachelor of Commerce degree majoring in accounting from the University of Venda and a Leadership Development Programme from the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), University of Pretoria.
The 51-year-old is a licenced senior business rescue practitioner, and his passion includes economic development and transformation.
Makhavhu who hails from the Vhembe District was employed by the IDC for approximately 16 years, occupying various roles at their corporate head office and on secondment to subsidiary and investee companies.
He was head of IDC’s Post Investment Monitoring, which he spearheaded in its establishment in 2008, assembling a team of highly skilled and professional individuals to manage over R90 billions of IDC’s private equity portfolio including loans and advances.
He was also the head of risk management at the corporation responsible for key risk disciplines namely; credit risk, operational risk, business continuity risk as well as enterprise-wide risk management.
Makhavhu said his childhood was as that of any other child from the villages, growing up herding cattle. “The only difference would be that I am from the royal family as my father was the Chief of Gunda Village and was also a priest and an entrepreneur. I started working for Leda as CEO for the group from November 2020. Prior to that, I have been in banking and development finance for over 24 years. My working career started basically after I graduated from the University of Venda. I took a gap year from studying in 1991, taking the role of a temporary teacher at Musina High School at the early age of 22, teaching business economics to Gr 11 and 12 learners. I did enjoy my short stint as a teacher and went on to further my post graduate Honours studies at the University of the Western Cape, studying full time for a year and then completed it with Unisa,” said Makhavhu.
He said he then served his three years of accounting and auditing articles with KPMG in Cape Town. “After completion, I joined the Standard Bank group in Johannesburg, followed by other financial institutions including the South African Reserve Bank and Absa in various roles. I then joined the IDC group and worked in various capacities including as CEO of two IDC investee companies, for roughly 16 years. Here, I gained knowledge and expertise in strategic leadership; strategy formulation and implementation; governance, risk and compliance; change management; end-to-end of business risk assessment, in transactional evaluation for funding and investment; portfolio management; stakeholder management and communication, and turnaround strategies in particular,” he said.
“After being with Leda for just over two months I have identified possibilities and challenges we face as a business. We need to continue to develop our people and harness opportunities for growth. As the leading agency of the province, Leda has a fundamental role to play in accelerating economic growth, development and job creation for the benefit of the people of Limpopo. It is my belief that the agency can be repositioned and capacitated with purpose to drive its mandate,” he explains.
The father of four further said his family is very supportive of what he does especially his wife who is his best friend and a pillar of strength.
