BNSHESAID 2024: South Africa in Focus

Nobuntu Hlazo-Webster is a Member of the South African National Assembly as well as co-founder and Deputy Leader of political party Build One South Africa (BOSA). The party exists as a vehicle to unearth and elect homegrown independent leaders in communities across the country.

She is also the founder of the SA Women’s Commission, which assembles women from all walks of life to collaborate in contributing to change in South Africa.

Also a speaker and published author, Nobuntu names nation building and economic justice as a consistent thread in all the work she undertakes.

She has spent the bulk of her career as an entrepreneur with ventures in media and economic development consulting and has led numerous organisations including the Businesswomen’s Association of SA as Chairperson, the International Women’s Forum’s as President of the youth chapter and the KZN Youth Chamber of Commerce as Secretary-General.

Ms. Hlazo-Webster is an alumni of Future-Elect, the United States IVLP, and an International Women’s Forum fellow.

She has been recognised with numerous accolades from Businesswomen’s Association of SA, KZN Department of Economic Development and Cosmopolitan Magazine – to name a few.
Nobuntu holds a BPhil Honours degree and several post-graduate business qualifications. She sits on various NPO boards and is involved in numerous community initiatives.

Farzana is currently Deputy Commissioner at the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) in South Africa. She was appointed to this role by the Minister of Finance on 1 December 2021 and is part of the Executive Committee responsible for overseeing the overall strategic and operational management of the FSCA. She is also responsible for the development and implementation of harmonised licensing and supervisory risk frameworks for a range of financial institutions including banks, investment providers, life and non-life insurers, microinsurers, and insurance intermediaries, as well as oversight of the FSCA’s Office of General Counsel.

Farzana’s financial sector policy and supervisory experience spans multiple private and public institutions, locally and internationally in both developed and emerging economies. She was previously Senior Policy Advisor responsible for conduct risk, financial technology and digital transformation at the IAIS Secretariat in Basel. Prior to that, she was Divisional Executive responsible for Conduct of Business Supervision across the financial sector and headed up the regulatory frameworks and insurance conduct supervision departments at the FSCA and its predecessor, the Financial Services Board. She was also Head of Regulatory Risk and Compliance at a large insurance group where she established the second line regulatory risk and compliance function, and data protection and combined assurance frameworks for the group’s non-life insurance entity. While at a global audit and advisory firm, she led and participated in several financial sector regulatory and technology risk assessment and implementation projects for a number of institutions including banks, insurers and investment firms.

She is also currently a member of the IAIS’ Implementation and Assessment Committee (IAC), Supervisory Forum (SF) and Protection Gaps Task Force (PGTF).

Farzana graduated summa cum laude with a Law degree from the University of Natal-Durban in South Africa, holds a Master of Laws degree in International Law from the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor, USA, and completed her Master of Laws coursework in Human Rights and Constitutional Litigation, Internet, E-commerce and Technology Law and Bioethics at the University of KwaZulu Natal in South Africa.

Yvonne Mhango is the Africa Economist for Bloomberg Economics, based in Johannesburg. She previously worked as Africa economist and head of Africa research at Renaissance Capital, and chief economist at Equity Bank. Yvonne holds a Masters’ degree in Business Science, majoring in Economics, from the University of Cape Town.