Our-Executive-Team

Khensani Mukhari

Chief Financial Officer

Qualifications: Chartered Accountant (CA) and Master’s in Business Leadership;

Appointed: 3 February 2020

Khensani is an experienced finance executive with over 20 years’ experience in various sectors which include Retail, Agriculture, Insurance, Information Technology and several Banking Institutions. Her roles in these sectors included overall responsibility for complying with PFMA, GAAP, IFRS, financial policies and procedures as well as maintaining general financial discipline.

Karen Swart

Acting Chief People and Culture Officer

Qualifications: National Diploma in Human Resource Management, a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) in Human Resource Management, a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) in Business Management, an Magister Technologiae (M.Tech) in Business Administration. Additionally and a Management Development Programme.

Appointed: 01 April 2025

Karen joined Land Bank in 2016 as Head: People & Culture Business Partners. With more than 25 years of People and Culture experience, including 22 years in senior leadership, she is a seasoned professional known for shaping organisational culture, driving people-centric strategies, and enhancing business performance through effective human capital management.

She has worked across diverse industries, leading talent management, improving employee engagement, and aligning people and culture initiatives with business goals. Her expertise spans the full People and Culture value chain, including talent acquisition, leadership development, performance management, organisational design, learning and development, remuneration, culture, and employee relations.A strategic and innovative senior leader, Karen is skilled at building high-performing teams, optimising organisational structures, and leading change. She is committed to fostering a culture of continuous learning, inclusion, and high performance

Jabu Mphabo

Chief Banking Offic​er

Qualifications: CA (SA), CFA, MBA (GIBS), PGDip (GIBS), PGDA (UCT), BBusSci (UCT)

Appointed: 01 November 2024.

Jabu is a senior banking executive with 15 years’ experience in banking and investments, offering a rare combination of deep strategic and operational leadership, coupled with disciplined investment expertise. Currently serving as Chief Banking Officer, leading a multi-disciplinary function across client coverage, corporate finance & investments, legal, product development, pricing, client insights, client channels, and CRM management - driving operational excellence and company-wide growth execution. Complementing this, Jabu has extensive investment experience gained through leading corporate finance, M&A, and distressed credit investment mandates and teams. His diverse sectoral exposure includes banking, agriculture, insurance brokerage, mining, fintech payments services, building materials, and advertising. A commercially astute and strategic leader with a strong track record in deal origination & evaluation, transaction structuring, portfolio & operational optimization, people management, leadership and growth delivery. He is a CA(SA), CFA, and MBA-qualified professional, with a reputation for consistent high performance and impactful leadership.

Faride Stiglingh

Executive Manager: Collection, Workout and Restructuring

Qualifications: Management Development Programme: Financial Accounting; Senior Management Retail Development; Senior Management Corporate Governance Programme; Senior Management Banking Programme; Executive Development Banking Programme

Appointed: 1 June 2016

Faride is an innovative, consultative and “hands-on” Credit Risk Professional with more than 25 years’ experience in the field of debt management, debt structuring, portfolio surveillance and risk management.

He acquired his extensive financial and risk management knowledge and skills through various Senior and Executive positions held at Edcon Financial services, Woolworths and Standard Bank.

A high-energy, proven self-starter, Faride has led large teams and operational environments to achieve significant pre-impairment, impairment and income statement savings across all product lending lines of major financial institutions. As a highly motivated and effective Credit Risk Executive, he is attune to delivering high quality results under pressure.

Pascal Siphugu​

Managing Director: Land Bank Insurance Company / Land Bank Life Insurance Company (LBIC / LBLIC)

Qualifications: BA Honours degree, MBA and Post Graduate Diploma in Management Practice

Appointed: 01 June 2023

Pascal is a seasoned insurance practitioner with industry experience spanning close to two decades.​ Over this period, he has held various senior leadership and executive roles with major insurance companies in Southern Africa.

Prior to joining Land Bank Insurance, he was the General Manager of Bancassurance at Absa Insurance, a role he has occupied over the past 5 and a half years.

Pascal was also an Executive Director of Absa Risk Transfer Company (ARTIC), a Cell captive insurance company owned by Absa Bank Limited and was also a Non-Executive Director of Swaziland Royal Insurance Company.

He holds other various academic, leadership and insurance qualifications. He is a Licentiate of the Insurance Institute of SA.

Sydney Soundy

Position: Chief Strategy Officer

Qualifications: Bachelor of Administration; Bachelor of Administration (Hons), Industrial Psychology; Graduate Diploma in Marketing; MBA; Global Executive Development programme

Appointed: August 2015

Sydney is a seasoned executive who boasts extensive experience in both the public and private sectors. After joining Land Bank in August 2015, he held the executive position in Commercial Development and Business Banking (CDBB), a role he still fulfils in an acting capacity. He was appointed to his current position in 2017.

During a career that spans more than three decades, he has accumulated a wealth of executive management and financial management services expertise. The majority of his previous positions were senior management roles in the private and public sectors, with various institutions. He served as the Chief Operating Officer at South African National Parks (SANParks), Assistant General Manager at the South African Revenue Service (SARS), Managing Executive of Vehicle and Asset Finance at ABSA and Head of Finance at Standard Bank.

Sakhumzi (Sakhi) Diza

Executive Manager: Chief Risk Officer (CRO)

Qualifications: Bsc Agric Economics; Honours Agricultural Economics, Masters in agricultural Economics, and training in Mergers & Acquisition, Private Equity training programs from GIBS

Appointed: 17 August 2020

Sakhi re-joined the Land Bank Group on 20 September 2016 in the position of General Manager: Corporate Credit.. He is a qualified agricultural economist and he has a diverse range of experience in development, corporate, commercial finance and managerial skills within credit granting environment. He started his career as agricultural economist in 2002 managing development projects in the Western Cape-linking small scale farmers to markets and access to technical support via large scale players and value chain role players. He subsequently joined ABSA Bank as an agri-specialist in agri-business finance focusing on medium business segments, and development finance and later moved to Land Bank where he served in various roles such as investment specialist, head of sales team, and credit manager. After his stint at Land Bank he further moved to Standard Bank as part of a senior credit team in the Agri-Business unit, responsible for the RSA agri-business portfolio where he held personal lending mandate for Large Agri-Business segment extending loans to (Mega farmers, Agro-processors & Agribusinesses in South Africa), mentoring and guiding credit managers & risk managers within the agribusiness portfolio during his six year tenure at the Bank.

He has strong track record in deal origination, credit granting across all segments, small, medium and large agri-businesses, structuring using various funding instruments such as debt, hybrid products such as (mezzanine or preference shares), equity instruments, and has exposure in overall risk management.

Unathi Magwentshu

Executive Manager : Corporate Banking and Structured Investments

Qualifications: BCom (Hons); Chartered Accountant (SA);

Appointed: 1 March 2019

Unathi is a Chartered Accountant with experience in finance, executive management and investment banking. She completed her articles at Deloitte in 2001. She further gained investment banking experience working at ABSA Capital, Nedbank Capital and Kwande Group with specific expertise in credit risk management; acquisition and leverage finance; structured equity finance and private equity investing across a variety of sectors.

Before joining the Land Bank, Unathi was the Financial Director at Masana Petroleum. Unathi has a strategic mind-set, strong business acumen and stakeholder engagement experience.

Zimbini Klaasen

Acting CFO Chief Financial Officer

Qualifications: BCom Financial Accounting; BCom Honours Accounting; Chartered Accountant (SA);

Appointed: 20 December 2022

Zimbini is a qualified Chartered Accountant (SA) with experience in providing assurance, financial reporting, risk assessment and response, designing and monitoring internal controls, evaluating accounting policies, having previously provided reasonable assurance (external audit) for the past 14 years of her career. She is a Member of SAICA in good standing and an associate member of the SAICA Banking, Insurance and Investment working groups. Since joining Land Bank she was also appointed as Managing Committee member of the Land Bank Alexander Forbes Pension Fund.

She previously headed the research and development unit of the inaugural Centre of Excellence in Banking and Financial Services at the Auditor-General of South Africa and she was instrumental in its 99% achievement of its three year strategic objectives of building specialists in banking and financial services on its very first year of.

Sakhumzi May

Executive Manager: Chief Agricultural Economist

Qualifications: BSc in Agricultural Economics; BSc in Agricultural Economics Honours; Management Advancement Programme; Certificate in Leadership Development; International Executive Development Programme; and Master of Philosophy in Development Finance

Appointed: 01 April 2024

Sakhumzi is a seasoned agricultural economist and credit risk specialist with a combined experience of more than 27 years experience in banking and agricultural finance.

He spent his career at Land Bank and Absa where he has been responsible for conducting due diligence for credit applications, as well as distressed clients, business development, valuation of farm properties, project financing in rural communities, facilitating skills transfer to developing farmers, government relations, credit assessment, portfolio management, commercial bank product offering, agricultural risk management, farm property valuation guidelines, agricultural market analysis for internal stakeholders and Farmers Weekly magazine, credit governance, credit policies and procedures, credit risk strategy, agricultural disaster risk management, credit models, model validation and portfolio monitoring – end to end credit value chain.

Sydney Soundy

Chief Strategy Officer

Qualifications: BAdmin; BAdmin (Hons): Industrial Psychology; Graduate Diploma in Marketing; MBA; Global Executive Development Programme

Appointed: 1 August 2015

Sydney is a seasoned executive with experiences in both the Public and Private Sectors.

He is currently responsible for the Strategy and Communication division at Land Bank. Having joined the Bank in August 2015, Sydney held the role of Executive Manager: Commercial Development Banking before being appointed to his current role at the beginning of May 2017.

Sydney has a wealth of executive management and financial services expertise, honed over 30 years, a majority of which have included senior management roles in both the private and public sector at institutions including Chief Operating Officer at the South African National Parks; Assistant General Manager at the South African Revenue Services; Managing Executive for Vehicle and Asset Finance at Absa and Head of Vehicle and Asset Finance at Standard Bank.

Konehali Gugushe

Chief Risk Officer

BCom: Accounting and Commercial Law; Post-Graduate Diploma in Accounting; Certificate in the Theory and Practice of Auditing; Chartered Accountant (SA)

Kone is a Chartered Accountant (SA) with extensive experience in the financial services sector.

Kone completed her articles at the audit firm Moores Rowland in 2001 before joining Standard Bank as Credit Manager. She gained exposure to equity management through stints at J.P. Morgan and Safika Holdings before joining Nedbank in 2007, where she spent the next seven years as Senior Portfolio Manager: Group Credit Risk Monitoring and then Divisional Executive: Corporate Social Investment.

Through her career, Kone has developed a strong and holistic understanding of the risk and governance issues impacting organisations. She is committed to good governance and to providing Land Bank’s shareholders and stakeholder with the assurance that the Group is managed with due consideration to risk and compliance.

Adv. Bernice Mkhonza-Raseroka

Company Secretary

Appointed: 1 November 2023

Advocate Bernice Mkhonza-Raseroka is an admitted Advocate and holds an LLB & B. Juries Degree from the University of Western Cape, Compliance Post Graduate Certificate, Board Governance Post Graduate Certificate & Money Laundering Control Post Graduate Certificate from the University of Johannesburg.

She has over 10 years’ working experience as General Counsel, Company Secretary, Compliance Specialist, Governance Head, Head of Legal and Information Officer. Her career included companies such as Old Mutual, Momentum Africa, Liberty Africa, FNB, Nedbank, Tshwane Rapid Transit and Ekurhuleni Municipality.