All too often, good infrastructure goes unnoticed. This is probably one of the reasons why few South Africans know and understand the country’s Central Securities Depository, Strate, however, without it, investors would shy away from South Africa.
Prior to the implementation of Strate in 1999, SA was categorised as one of the worst emerging markets in terms of operational and settlement risk. Trading volumes on the stock exchange were averaging 4,000 trades daily, very thin when this is compared to the 350 000 on average during a month today.
For the past 18 years Strate, South Africa’s Central Securities Depository, has focused on settling securities transactions across South Africa’s financial markets. Today, the organisation is placing a core focus on financial literacy through its consumer education initiative, Strate from the Ground.
Dr Merrill Van Der Walt, with community members following the December Harvest
According to Dr Merrill van der Walt, Data Scientist at Strate, one of the key elements for Strate from the Ground is to educate communities on the basics of banking and financial matters (a knowledge area that is seriously lacking in marginalised areas), as well as meeting nutritional needs in a disadvantaged community that is food insecure. “The lack of food security is a huge problem for South Africans in rural areas and those of lower socio-economic standing.”
According to a report issued by Statistics South Africa on poverty trends in the country, poor households spend approximately a third (33%) of their income on food. Total food expenditure for poor households is given at R8 485 per annum or R707 per month. It is important to understand that this figure is the proportion that households are able to spend on food. Given current food prices, it is clear that this amount is not enough to secure a sufficient and nutritious variety of food.
“Adding to this harsh backdrop is the bleak reality of constantly rising food and fuel prices, high-energy tariffs and increasing interest rates. These conditions have placed severe pressure on ordinary South Africans who are already struggling to meet their basic household needs”, says Dr van der Walt. With projects such as these, people will be more empowered and educated to make better decisions in accessing basic needs as well as handling their finances.
“At Strate, we embrace innovation and change. The term ‘innovation’ is difficult to define, and although most models centre on technology driven innovation and competitive focus, there is a social dimension to innovation and the role of social interaction,” says Dr van der Walt. “Social innovations are new strategies, concepts, ideas and organisations that meet the social needs of different elements which can be from working conditions and education to community development and health.”
Strate has partnered with several organisations that will make it possible to provide nutritious and organic produce to approximately 50 labourers on a monthly basis while equipping farmers and schools in the area with the practical guidance on finance and banking.
Some pictures of the produce following the December Harvest:
The first annual Finance and Investment Management Olympiad (FIMO) kicked off this year with 825 students, most of whom came from public schools.
The initiative, sponsored as a consumer education project by Strate, was run out of the Finance and Investment Management Department at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) and focused on Grade 11 and 12 learners in Gauteng.
According to Leigh Bevis, Strate’s Head of Stakeholder Relations, the participation by students played an important role in developing critical financial skills and educating the youth, with the ultimate intention of growing South Africa’s investment base. “South Africa’s economic growth is dependent on its investment profile. By nurturing students’ finance and investment skills, we’re empowering them to be educated so that they can contribute to the future success of our economy.”
Looking ahead, the national roll-out of FIMO to Grade 11 and 12 learners is being considered following the success of Olympiad in Gauteng.
The first round of the Olympiad was written on 6 May 2015, and the final round on 12 August 2015. The 2015 winners were:
Public Schools
Private Schools
First Place: Tie between T Sethshedi from Sutherland High School and S Bhana from King Edward VII School
First Place: RI Trusler from Redhill High School
Second Place: N Ambrose from Zakariyya Park Combined School
Second Place: VT Rakgotho from Vuleka Secondary School
Third Place: GJ Dreyer from Pretoria Boys High School
Third Place: LGN Novello from Redhill High School
Fourth Place: NT Nemaungani from Sutherland High School
Fourth Place: KK Mosupyoe from Princess Park College
Fifth Place: AC Mkhontwana from Cosmo City Secondary School
Fifth Place: Dylan Nlzetich from Reddam House
Strate would like to congratulate the winners, as well as all students who participated in the 2015 FIMO. It also wishes to express its gratitude to the educators at the University of Johannesburg as well as to the organiser, Proverto.
Monica Singer speaking at the awards ceremony
Monica Singer and UJ Faculty Dean, Professor Amanda Dempsey, with students and representatives from FIMO.
BSc Mathematics and Applied Mathematics (Honours), MSc Applied Mathematics (cum laude)(SU), CFA charter holder
Helena is former CEO of Satrix, the leading provider of index-tracking products in South Africa, wholly owned by the Sanlam Group. Since joining Sanlam Investments in 2000, Helena has built up a highly regarded indexation business, which has over R140 billion in assets under management. Her team also manages the largest equity portfolio of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) in South Africa. Under her strategic leadership, Satrix has built up a formidable offering of both vanilla, factor and global products, which are available in the retail and institutional markets across ETF, unit trust and segregated portfolios.
Helena Conradie
Independent Non-executive Director
BSc Mathematics and Applied Mathematics (Honours), MSc Applied Mathematics (cum laude)(SU), CFA charter holder
Helena is former CEO of Satrix, the leading provider of index-tracking products in South Africa, wholly owned by the Sanlam Group. Since joining Sanlam Investments in 2000, Helena has built up a highly regarded indexation business, which has over R140 billion in assets under management. Her team also manages the largest equity portfolio of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) in South Africa. Under her strategic leadership, Satrix has built up a formidable offering of both vanilla, factor and global products, which are available in the retail and institutional markets across ETF, unit trust and segregated portfolios
Helena Conradie
Independent Non-executive Director
BSc Mathematics and Applied Mathematics (Honours), MSc Applied Mathematics (cum laude)(SU), CFA charter holder
Helena is former CEO of Satrix, the leading provider of index-tracking products in South Africa, wholly owned by the Sanlam Group. Since joining Sanlam Investments in 2000, Helena has built up a highly regarded indexation business, which has over R140 billion in assets under management. Her team also manages the largest equity portfolio of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) in South Africa. Under her strategic leadership, Satrix has built up a formidable offering of both vanilla, factor and global products, which are available in the retail and institutional markets across ETF, unit trust and segregated portfolios
Sameera Dada is Strate’s Chief Financial Officer. Previously, she held the position of chief risk officer at Ashburton Investments. Prior to that she held numerous roles including heading risk management at MMI Investments and Savings and serving as a financial and investment risk manager at Momentum Asset Management.
Sameera Dada
Sameera Dada is Strate’s Chief Financial Officer. Previously, she held the position of chief risk officer at Ashburton Investments. Prior to that she held numerous roles including heading risk management at MMI Investments and Savings and serving as a financial and investment risk manager at Momentum Asset Management.
Gregory Naicker
Gregory Naicker is Head of CSD Services. He has built up a career of over 20 years at Strate and has substantial institutional knowledge of the business, stakeholders and the markets, both in South Africa and internationally. His passion for Strate has led him to build credibility with internal and external stakeholders across the market.
Farzana Khan
Farzana Khan is Head of Collateral Services. She most recently headed Rand Merchant Bank’s securities lending division and has over 22 years’ experience in the financial sector. Prior to Rand Merchant Bank, she held posts at Merrill Lynch S.A. and Standard Corporate & Merchant Bank. She is a registered securities trader with the JSE Securities Exchange, holds the designation for the Settlement Officer’s Exam and has the International Capital Markets Qualification from the South African Institute of Financial Markets.
Rudi Steenkamp
Rudi Steenkamp is Head of Technology and Data Management. He oversees the entire IT function of Strate. Since joining the company through Strate’s merger with UNEXcor in 2003, Rudi has worked in the IT space for over 16 years. With one of the most advanced and sophisticated IT infrastructures for a CSD, Strate has achieved 99.995% uptime for the last four years and is one of the top 2% users of the SWIFT Network internationally.
Beverley Furman
Beverley Furman is Head of Operations. Previously, she was the Head of Strate Supervision, which she created in 2001 to supervise and monitor compliance by CSD Participants with South Africa’s securities legislation and the Financial Markets Act – a role Strate must perform as a licensed self-regulatory organisation. Bev has over 20 years’ experience in the financial markets.
Pheona Härtel
Pheona Härtel is Head of Risk, Legal and Compliance. She is experienced in overseeing risk disciplines and has worked for several blue-chip financial organisations in South Africa where, among other things, she has led operational process re-engineering; implemented, and expanded upon, compliance and governance principles; championed Treating Customers Fairly objectives; and provided strategic risk and governance inputs to CEOs and executives.
Samantha Cooper
Samantha Cooper is Head of Human Capital and Transformation. She has extensive experience in Human Capital Management. Samantha is a registered psychometrist and an accredited life coach. Before joining Strate, Samantha held a number of senior roles within the South African financial services sector.
Nigel Payne
Independent Non-executive Chairman
BCom (Hons), CA(SA), MBL (Unisa)
Nigel has a significant amount of experience in financial markets as well as in audit and risk management. He is a career non-executive chairman who serves on a number of boards including Mr Price Group Limited, Bid Corporation Limited and Vukile Property Fund Limited.
André Nortjé
Chief Executive Officer
BCom (Hons) Financial Management (UP), MCom Finance (cum laude)(Unisa)
André Nortjé is Strate’s Chief Executive Officer. He has over 20 years of executive management experience across multiple financial services disciplines and across multiple jurisdictions with a deep understanding of financial markets from both the buy and sell side. Before joining Strate, André held numerous executive roles ranging from treasurer of a commercial bank to chief operating officer positions for several investment management businesses in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
André Nortjé
André Nortjé is Strate’s Chief Executive Officer. He has over 20 years of executive management experience across multiple financial services disciplines and across multiple jurisdictions with a deep understanding of financial markets from both the buy and sell side. Before joining Strate, André held numerous executive roles ranging from treasurer of a commercial bank to chief operating officer positions for several investment management businesses in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
André Nortjé
Chief Executive Officer
BCom (Hons) Financial Management (UP), MCom Finance (cum laude)(Unisa)
André Nortjé is Strate’s Chief Executive Officer. He has over 20 years of executive management experience across multiple financial services disciplines and across multiple jurisdictions with a deep understanding of financial markets from both the buy and sell side. Before joining Strate, André held numerous executive roles ranging from treasurer of a commercial bank to chief operating officer positions for several investment management businesses in South Africa and the United Kingdom.
Elias Masilela has held senior positions across multiple industries, including CEO of the PIC, head of policy analysis at Sanlam, deputy director general economic policy in the National Treasury, and director of research at the Central Bank of Swaziland. He currently serves as the Chairman of DNA Economics, Sanlam Limited and Impact Investing SA as well as commissioner of the 1st & 2nd National Planning Commission. He previously served on the boards of the South African Reserve Bank, the Government Employee Pension Fund, the Airports Company SA and the UN Global Compact Board. He also served as chairman of the UNGC SA Local Network.
He has written and published widely, enjoying nomination to the Top 40 of the Alan Paton Award, 2007. His most influential books are Number 43 Trelawney Park; KwaMagogo (2007) and Larry Simply Larry (2018).
Keith Getz
Lead Independent Non-executive Director
BProc, LLM (UCT)
Keith Getz is a qualified lawyer with deep experience in takeovers and mergers, private equity, corporate restructuring, black economic empowerment transactions, exchange control regulations, commercial law contracts, regulatory compliance and stock exchange listings. In addition, he advises corporate clients nationally and internationally on corporate and commercial matters. Other directorships include Mr Price Group Limited and Spur Corporation Limited.
Louisa Stephens
Independent Non-executive Director
BBusSc (UCT), BCom (Hons)(RAU), CA(SA), CD(SA)
Louisa is an independent financial trader and serves as an independent non-executive director of Multichoice Group, Royal Bafokeng Platinum, Tongaat Hulett and the Institute of Directors in South Africa.
She held a position as the uMnotho Fund Manager at the National Empowerment Fund, and as an investment banker at Rand Merchant Bank. Prior to that, she was General Manager of the Investment and Finance divisions of Nozala Investments and Chief Investment Officer of Circle Capital Ventures.
Louisa served her articles in KPMG’s financial services division.
Mathukana is a qualified Chartered Accountant (SA) with diverse work experience in corporate finance and financial management. Her working career includes, amongst others, employment by Standard Bank as a deal maker (Leveraged and Acquisition Finance), Cadiz Financial Services (Corporate Financier) and Woolworths (Financial Analyst).
Mathukana serves on multiple boards, including Sanlam Limited, Palabora Mining (Pty) Ltd, Stadio Holdings, Alviva Holdings and Contract Services Group Holdings.
Leila Fourie
Non-executive Director
BA (RAU), BA (Hons)(cum laude)(Unisa), MCom (UJ), PhD Economic and Financial Science (UJ), Graduate of Australian Institute of Company Directors (GAICD)
Leila Fourie is a seasoned business executive having previously served as an executive director of the JSE. Her career of more than 25 years spans the capital markets, payment systems, consulting, investment banking and retail banking. Leila has held multiple senior executive positions and directorships of global portfolios and served on both local and international boards.
Rajesh Ramsundhar
Non-executive Director (alternate)
BCom (Wits), MBA (Gibs)
Rajesh is the Group Head of Standard Bank’s Investor Services business in sub–Saharan Africa where he has held several senior leadership roles, including head of business development, head of product management and head of cash management.
He has over 20 years’ experience in financial services in the areas of banking, securities services, FX and money markets and has worked for both domestic and international blue-chip firms.
Murray Stocks
Non-executive Director
B.Com (University of Natal)
Murray Stocks has wide securities and banking experience, having worked in multiple roles at Nedbank for over 30 years. His broad experience spans treasury, corporate and international banking, Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), programme management, electronic banking, credit cards, cash and cheque operations, global trade and securities custodial services. Through his depth of experience, he is expert on settlement and CSD participant matters.
Ryan Proudfoot
Non-executive Director (alternate)
BAcc (Wits), CA(SA)
Ryan Proudfoot has extensive experience across financial markets and products with specific expertise in trade execution, securities lending, futures clearing, prime broking, custody, market risk management, credit counterparty risk and regulation (including Basel III).
He has previously served as a director on numerous boards including RMB Stockbroking Operations (Pty) Limited and SAFCOM (Pty) Limited. Prior and current management board or memberships include the South African Institute of Stockbrokers, SAFCOM Derivatives Risk Committee, JSE Currency Derivatives Advisory Committee, ASISA’s Hedge Funds Standing Committee and JSE Bonds Advisory Committee.
Alicia Greenwood is the Director of Post Trade Services for JSE Limited, responsible for all clearing and settlement activities in equities, bonds and derivatives markets. Alicia is also the CEO of JSE Clear, the Central Counterparty (CCP) for the derivatives markets. Prior to joining the JSE in 2016, she spent ten years as a director of Standard Bank in various risk and capital management roles in corporate and investment banking. Alicia has also held roles at Discovery and Accenture, focusing on the development, and execution thereof, of financial services’ strategies.
Chris Edwards
Non-executive Director (alternate)
BSocSci Philosophy, PGDip Management (UCT)
Chris Edwards has been a managing principal at Absa for over 10 years where he also heads the Prime Services and Passive Funds businesses. He is also a director of Absa Stockbrokers. Prior to joining Absa, he spent 11 years with Morgan Stanley, based in London and then Hong Kong. During this time, he held a variety of positions, including responsibility for the distribution within the Prime Brokerage & Listed Derivatives businesses.
Mark Murning
Independent Non-executive Director
BCom (Wits)
Mark Murning has extensive experience in financial markets, having worked in several roles across the investment banking, capital market and asset management businesses within the Sanlam Group.
Mark spent 26 years in the Sanlam Group, serving as the CEO of Sanlam Capital Markets, and subsequently as CEO of Sanlam Specialised Finance. He has held several positions, as a board member of divisional companies and on governance committee.
Kabelo Makwane
Independent Non-executive Director
MBA (Wits Business School) BCom (UKZN)
Kabelo Makwane has over 20 years’ information and communications technology experience and is currently Managing Executive for the Cloud, Hosting and Security enterprise business within Vodacom Business. Most recently, he was the Managing Director for the Africa Geo responsible for Accenture Operations, leading the Business Process and Infrastructure Outsource Business across Africa. At Accenture he also held the role of Managing Director for Cloud and Technology Consulting.
Kabelo has also worked at Microsoft, where his last role was Nigeria Country Managing Director. Prior to that he was at Cisco and Unisys Africa. Kabelo has fulfilled board responsibilities in the financial services and public sectors as a non-executive director and as part of independent advisory boards to the state.
Stuart Yates
Non-executive Director
BSc (Hons) Computer Science (Edinburgh, Scotland), Fellow (South African Institute of Financial Markets)
Stuart Yates held a long-established career in financial markets, having first joined the industry through specialised bond trading in 1979. He has held multiple roles in the financial sector including as the Banking Association’s member on the Bond Market Association and a member of the design team for SAFEX. After joining Rand Merchant Bank in 1992, he developed a treasury outsourcing business, headed HR during the FNB merger and was the bank’s representative on Strate’s board for six years. He is currently an independent non-executive director serving on a number of boards.
Strate Charity Shares
Strate Charity Shares (SCS) is an independent non-profit organisation, and joint market initiative from Strate, the JSE, ComputerShare and PSG who provide their services for free to realise the value locked up in odd lots of unwanted securities that could be used to support charitable causes.
It started with David Cobbett, a stockbroker, who had the idea of mobilising the millions of rands locked up in odd lots of shares in listed companies and using the funds for good causes. In 2001, he asked Tom Wixley, recently retired Ernst & Young chairman at the time, to help him make this dream a reality.
Market-wide engagement followed including with the Department of Social Welfare and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) who agreed that the value of any shares donated may be deducted from taxable income, as the scheme is registered under section 18A of the Income Tax Act.
Since its formation, Strate Charity Shares has given worthy causes over R10 million that would otherwise have remained unused.
To view the Strate Charity Shares funding and reporting guidelines, click here
Strate Charity Shares
Strate Charity Shares (SCS) is an independent non-profit organisation, and joint market initiative from Strate, the JSE, ComputerShare and PSG who provide their services for free to realise the value locked up in odd lots of unwanted securities that could be used to support charitable causes.
It started with David Cobbett, a stockbroker, who had the idea of mobilising the millions of rands locked up in odd lots of shares in listed companies and using the funds for good causes. In 2001, he asked Tom Wixley, recently retired Ernst & Young chairman at the time, to help him make this dream a reality.
Market-wide engagement followed including with the Department of Social Welfare and the South African Revenue Service (SARS) who agreed that the value of any shares donated may be deducted from taxable income, as the scheme is registered under section 18A of the Income Tax Act.
Since its formation, Strate Charity Shares has given over R10 million to worthy causes that would otherwise have remained unused.
To view the Strate Charity Shares funding and reporting guidelines, click here
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