SPEAKERS
(MC Day 1) Melanie L de Nysschen
Melanie L de Nysschen
Melanie is a financial services industry professional with a legal background and extensive experience in the investment banking industry, specifically corporate finance and capital markets.
Melanie is passionate about the sustainable development, and ultimately growth, of small to medium sized enterprises. She believes that putting people first, and showing due respect for the planet on which we build lives, and businesses, contributes to sustainable business and a healthy profit line. A keen supporter of the Arts, Melanie also currently serves as an independent, non-executive director, on the board of The Joburg Ballet Company (NPC).
(MC Day 2) Cami Mbulawa
Cami Mbulawa
Cami heads up the alternative investment team. RisCura is a market leader in investment solutions in emerging markets such as Africa and China, with almost USD200bn in assets under management. With over 14 years of experience,Cami provides unlisted investment services for clients across all alternative asset classes, including private equity, infrastructure and private debt.
As the director of RisCura Fundamentals (Pty) Ltd, she is the training officer overseeing the company’s Chartered Accountant Training Programme, business development and team operations. Cami’s passion for business has allowed her to gain invaluable expertise in corporate governance and risk management. Her dedication has earned her appointments as an independent, non-executive director in diverse areas such as asset management, printing, enterprise development and state-owned entities. These include ministerial appointments on the University of the Western Cape Council and the Takeover Regulation Panel, where she is the chair of the audit committee.
Cami also sits on the boards of Africa Check and Aeon Asset Management, and is the chair of Tyhini, an enterprise development fund. Cami was the executive director at Grassroots Capital, which is responsible for growing and monitoring the agri-finance company loan book. She has also worked at BP Southern Africa and Ninety One. She is a CA (SA) and completed her articles at KPMG. Cami was admitted as a chartered director (SA) by the Institute of Directors South Africa.
Samantha Pokroy
Samantha Pokroy
Samantha is the founder and CEO of Sanari Capital, a private equity firm investing in the lower mid-market, with a specialization in founder-run, owner-managed and family-owned businesses. Samantha has fifteen years of private equity and venture capital experience in the South African and United States markets. She played a leading role in investments at Ethos Private Equity, prior to which she worked in private equity in Chicago and investment banking and consulting in New York. Samantha holds an MBA (Hons) from the University of Chicago, a BCom and BA Honours degree in Industrial Psychology from University of the Witwatersrand, and is a CFA Charter Holder. Samantha is a director on the board of SAVCA.
Michael Denenga
Michael Denenga
Michael is a finance and investment funds specialist. He has over 15 years of post qualification experience in advising on the formation of investment funds (including private equity, hedge funds, real estate and venture capital funds) and treasury documentation (including International Swaps and Derivatives Association, securities lending, Global Master Repurchase Agreements and prime brokerage agreements). He has also had experience at the treasury departments at Standard Bank of South Africa and Investec Bank. Michael has structured private equity funds and hedge funds in South Africa, Namibia, Mauritius, Cayman Islands, Luxembourg and Guernsey.
Gitte Truter
Gitte Truter
Gitte specialises in the formation of alternative investment funds. She has advised and acted for local and international private equity and venture capital houses looking to raise funds for deployment in South Africa as well as in Africa generally. She has also advised local and international investors with respect to investments into those funds. Her experience in fund formation includes the full spectrum of generalist and sector funds, including buyout, real estate, debt, housing, healthcare, infrastructure and renewable energy funds. She also advises on all regulatory aspects of investment funds .
Gitte has B.Com and LLB degrees from the University of Stellenbosch. She is recognised by Legal 500.
Zuko Kubukeli
Zuko Kubukeli
Zuko started his career in private equity and fund management in 2002 at Brait, and in 2006 joined Pan-African Capital Holdings (PACH) as a director and principal responsible for strategy and investments. The PACH investment holding company has been built up to NAV in excess of ZAR500m since 2006 at an IRR of 38%.
In late 2008, Zuko was mandated by the PACH board to build a private equity team and extend the PACH balance sheet by setting up a captive fund that would co-invest alongside PACH. By mid-June 2009, PAPE Fund 1 was capitalised by PACH and RMB Ventures at ZAR250m. The fund was fully invested in September 2012 and in October 2012 PAPE Fund 2 was capitalised at ZAR300m on the same funding basis.
Zuko is the sponsor of Fund 3, is the key originator of deals, a member of the PAPE Fund 3 Investment Committee and a key individual of the fund. Zuko is based in the PAPEfunds Bryanston office and is responsible for strategy and oversight, and serves on the investment committee.
Mbongeni Madonsela
Mbongeni Madonsela
Mbongeni is a founding Partner at Resolve SA. Mbongeni has over 16 years of private equity experience which. Successful tenures at Brait and RMB Ventures. He has worked on and concluded transactions across various sectors including but not limited to food, packaging, technology, retail and media.
Mbongeni is a CA(SA) and a member of South African Institute of Chartered Accountants.
Marde van Wyk
Marde van Wyk
Mardé van Wyk has extensive investment experience in Private Equity covering the entire deal value chain and sector exposure spanning across a myriad of investment (direct and fund) positions facilitated from generalist to theme-based strategies. She is regarded as specialist in investment, organisational and process structuring, including investment restructuring – a skillset obtained whilst working with distressed investments at South Africa’s largest asset manager. Her appreciation for innovation and solution engineering has led to her continued involvement in impactful theme-based venture capital project development initiatives with scale and global reach. This experience also comes with a long history of serving on the Board, Advisory Board and various sub-committees of a number of underlying companies and Funds.
Godlief Bashele
Godlief Bashele
Godlief is a Partner at Medu Capital and is responsible for investment execution and management.
Godlief has 15 years’ experience in auditing, corporate finance and private equity to his credit.
After qualifying with Ernst & Young, Godlief joined the corporate finance division of Investec Bank where he gained experience in all aspects of corporate finance, including mergers and acquisitions, disposals, JSE listings and BEE transactions.
Godlief is a non-executive director of a number of companies.
Siyasanga Mrabalala
Siyasanga Mrabalala
Siya joined Summit Africa in February 2024 in the role of Client Relation. She has over 12 years of experience in marketing, consumer analytics, client relations and venture capital.
Prior to joining Summit, Siya was Head of Business Development and Client and investor Relations at Grovest, working closely with their CEO in setting up permanent capital structures and providing administration and back-office support for Venture Capital Companies. Here she was also part of the Rencell Fund II team and the Twelve B Green Energy Fund team, providing support to Retail Investors and Asset Managers who on-sell the product to their clients.
Her background includes working at Vatwire, Signa, the Global Business Roundtable, the Black Women Organisation South Africa (BWOSA), and Hype Creation where she has developed a diverse set of leadership, organizational and transformation structuring and advisory skills. Her adeptness at relationship management has been a constant throughout her career, enabling her to maintain and strengthen key partnerships. Siya is currently completing her Bcom General Degree and is a CFA Candidate level.
Jesmane Boggenpoel
Jesmane Boggenpoel
Jesmane Boggenpoel is a senior business executive with over 15 years of expertise in investments. She co-founded and is the Managing partner of AIH Capital, a wholly women-owned private equity fund in South Africa. Where she oversees all the aspects of the fund, including ESG management. With over 14 years on corporate boards, Jesmane is well versed in finance, corporate risk, and governance. She was formerly the Chairperson of ETGIH, a subsidiary of ETG and the largest African fertiliser distributor based out of Dubai. She was formerly Chairperson of Sybrin, a fintech company servicing blue chip financial services clients across 17 countries.
Darshan Daya
Darshan Daya
Darshan brings more than 2 decades of private equity industry experience across many economic cycles to bear, having worked in large cap buyout funds prior to co-founding Capitalworks in 2006. Through directly sourcing and executing multiple transactions as well as numerous engagements with both the local and international institutional investor community, Darshan has a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities available to the venture and private equity industry in South Africa, which experience can be leveraged for the benefit of the greater industry through his participation on SAVCA board.
Godlief Bashele
Godlief Bashele
Godlief is a Partner at Medu Capital and is responsible for investment execution and management.
Godlief has 15 years’ experience in auditing, corporate finance and private equity to his credit.
After qualifying with Ernst & Young, Godlief joined the corporate finance division of Investec Bank where he gained experience in all aspects of corporate finance, including mergers and acquisitions, disposals, JSE listings and BEE transactions.
Godlief is a non-executive director of a number of companies.
Annabelle Satterly
Annabelle Satterly
Annabelle is a qualified Chartered Accountant (CA(SA)) with over two decades of experience in finance, operations, and investment management, primarily within private equity and asset management environments. Her career has spanned roles of increasing responsibility, with a strong focus on financial oversight, investor reporting, compliance, and operational efficiency. Currently, she serves as the Head of Finance and Operations at Opus 18 Capital Partners (Previously Capricorn Capital Partners Investments) (since March 2019), where she manages the full finance function, as well as managing offshore investment structures and office operations. Prior to this, she was CFO at Value Capital Partners for a year and before that, she spent nearly a decade at Medu Capital (2008–2017), also as CFO.
Annabelle completed her articles at Deloitte (2005–2007) and earned her CA(SA) designation in 2007, having passed both Board 1 and Board 2 on her first attempt. In addition to her professional roles, Annabelle passed the FSCA’s RE1, RE3, and RE5 regulatory exams and currently serves on the SAVCA Transformation Subcommittee and was previously on their Survey Subcommittee.
Academically, Annabelle holds a BComm Honours in Accounting from Rand Afrikaans University (RAU), obtained in 2004, and completed her matric at Ferndale High School in 2000, where she was Deputy Head Girl and achieved academic honours.
Mokgome Mogoba
Mokgome Mogoba
Mokgome is an experienced Fund Manager, Investment Banker and Deal Maker with over 18 years of experience.
Mokgome remains a Shareholder at Vantage Capital and was a Partner for more than 8 years, where he originated, structured, executed and actively managed mezzanine debt investments in SA, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and Rwanda. Mokgome assisted with fundraising which led to the raising of two Mezzanine Debt funds of close to R6bn and two Renewable Energy Senior Debt Co-Investment funds of R5bn. He led the conclusion and successful exits of several investments including provision of R250m of expansion capital to New GX Capital, R90m acquisition funding for Thebe Mining to acquire Timrite mining support business, R90m acquisition funding for Ascendis Health to acquire Efekto, $8m debt refinance package for Rosslyn Riviera Mall in Nairobi (Kenya) and $10m expansion capital provided to Simba properties the owner of Protea and Marriott Hotels in Uganda.
Akshay Karan
Akshay Karan
Akshay Karan is the Chief Investment Officer of Altvest Capital, an innovative, JSE listed, investment platform built around democratizing access to unique investment opportunities for ordinary South Africans and connecting small businesses to capital markets. As a CA(SA) and CAIA Charterholder, he has extensive experience in investment banking, management consulting, private equity, venture capital and alternative investments. He has helped build Altvest Capital from a startup to a dual-listed investment platform with almost R500 mil in assets under management within three years, and leads Altvest’s flagship Private Credit Fund, Altvest Credit Opportunities Fund.
Akshay is passionate about the intersection of traditional finance and social impact, and is a thought leader on utilizing innovative funding structures to achieve great risk-adjusted financial and social returns at scale. Most recently, he was a key figure behind Altvest’s consortium bid to purchase the commercial rights to the Springbok Rugby team, funded by and on behalf of ordinary South Africans and rugby fans.
Lungile Mashele
Lungile Mashele
Lungile Mashele is a seasoned energy economist with a distinguished career spanning over 15 years. Her journey began in the corporate world, honing her financial acumen in banking before transitioning to consulting and advisory roles. Mashele has a deep-rooted involvement in the African energy landscape, having worked closely with state-owned energy companies and contributing to the development of critical energy infrastructure across the continent. Her expertise in project finance has been instrumental in assessing and supporting a wide range of energy projects.
Currently, Mashele serves as a technical due diligence expert for an institutional investor, providing invaluable insights into the financial viability and technical soundness of energy projects and funds. Her extensive knowledge of the African energy sector positions her as a trusted advisor to investors and stakeholders.
Mashele's academic credentials are equally impressive. She holds qualifications in economics, econometrics, insolvency law, cost engineering, and energy. Her pursuit of a PhD in Engineering Management further underscores her commitment to staying at the forefront of the energy sector.
Craig Beney
Craig Beney
Craig is the Founder and CEO Craig Beney has over 12 years’ experience in the industry in South Africa and the sub-Sahara sub-continent. This includes being Chief Operating Officer for three sub-Sahara funds:
African Agriculture Fund (food security)
Pan African Housing Fund (affordable housing)
Communications Infrastructure Fund (digital infrastructure divide)
Brent Blankfield
Brent Blankfield
Brent is the head of Westbrooke Alternative Asset Management’s South African Private Debt and Hybrid Capital business. Before joining Westbrooke, Brent spent 5 years at Investec where he specialised in leveraged finance. Brent was involved in numerous transactions incorporating leverage and management buyouts, capex or growth facilities and property finance. Brent is a qualified CA(SA) and also holds a BCom (Hons) from the University of Johannesburg.
Fulu Makwetla
Fulu Makwetla
Fulufhelo (Fulu) Makwetla is an investment professional and entrepreneur with a passion for developmental investments, diversity advancement and inclusivity. She is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Third Way Investment Partners, a Non-executive Director of All Weather Capital, Fundi Capital, and serves on the investment committee of RH Bophelo.
She was previously the Investment Manager of the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) and represented GEPF on several advisory boards of Private Equity Funds on the African continent.
Prior to joining GEPF, she was an Executive and Senior Investment Consultant at RisCura, and an employer elected trustee of the RisCura Provident Fund. She also worked for RMB Asset Management, having started her career at Liberty Life and has over 17 years industry experience.
She is a member the Association of Black Securities and Investment Professionals (ABSIP). In pursuing her passion of diversity advancement and inclusion, especially that of women, she is intentional in her mentorship of young women both through the ABSIP Women in Focus, a sub-committee of ABSIP, as well as in her personal capacity.
Fulu holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Econometrics (a double major in Economics and Statistics) and a Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) in Economics from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. She has completed several short programs in Private Equity at GIBS and Investment Banking Institute. She has also completed programs at the World Bank in Washington DC, in Private Equity, Strategic Asset Allocation, Manager selection, and Master Custody.
Mmitji Letsoalo
Mmitji Letsoalo
Mmitji Letsoalo is an investment professional with a BCom Honours from the University of the Western Cape, and experience across private markets with a growing focus on ESG integration. He has worked across asset management and portfolio construction, contributing to investment platforms ranging from early-stage ventures and South Africa’s mid-market segment.
He currently holds investment roles at Thuso Incubation Partners and Ke Nako Capital, where he is involved in investment strategy, capital deployment, and portfolio oversight. He also provided support to the management team at Fireball Capital, a tech focussed venture capital fund.
Warren Wheatly
Warren Wheatly
Warren Wheatley, a Chartered Accountant and Certified Financial Planner is Founder & CEO of Altvest Capital & The Altvest Credit Opportunities Fund (”ACOF”). Additionally, Warren is the chairman of the Investment Committee and Audit & Risk Committee of the Transnet Retirement Fund and the Chairman and Trustee of the Telkom Retirement Fund.
Warren started his career as an article clerk with BC Hall and Company and concluded his professional training with Alexander Forbes Financial Services. Warren’s career progressed for 8 years at Alexander Forbes where he served under various roles within the institutional consulting and actuarial business. Most notably he ran one of the Consulting and Actuarial Branches in the Sandton Head Office covering the Gauteng client base. Prior to that Warren was the Principal Consultant to a number of high-profile corporate clients with billions in assets under advisement. Warren then moved onto ABSA Capital where he worked as an investment banker and Wealth manager to a portfolio of ultra-high net worth families. His duties here included advising on structured finance, various corporate advisory services, investment banking and asset management. In 2013 Warren left corporate banking at Absa and began his entrepreneurial endeavours co-founding Lebashe Investment Group & founding Altvest Capital.
Seipati Moichela
Diana Njuguna
Diana Njuguna
Diana is a senior investment professional with over 15 years’ experience in private equity, senior & mezzanine debt and asset management. She is passionate about investments in Sub-Saharan Africa and have a deep knowledge of debt and equity instruments having been involved in all aspects of the investment process i.e. deal origination, assessment, structuring, execution, post-transaction monitoring, exits as well as fundraising.
She is currently a Managing Director at Cross Boundary and an Africa Investment Advisor to the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) – America’s development financial institution, responsible for Southern Africa. In this role, she has sourced 45 investment transactions worth ~$1.7bn (of which 15 transactions worth ~$450m have been successfully screened), diligenced 11 transactions worth ~$800m and monitored 3 transactions worth ~$600m across the financial services, healthcare, agribusiness, hospitality, plastic recycling, affordable housing, road, ICT, education and renewable energy sectors in Africa thus playing a critical role in increasing DFC’s footprint in Africa while addressing critical challenges facing the developing world today.
Prior to that, Diana served as a Senior Investment Professional at Vantage Capital – across 2 Pan African mezzanine debt funds (Fund II and Fund III), where she was responsible for originating, assessing, structuring, executing, monitoring and exiting transactions in East Africa and South Africa. Prior to that, She worked at TransCentury in Kenya where she evaluated various medium and long-term private equity investments across fast-growing under-served sectors in Sub-Saharan Africa. Diana also worked at Goldman Sachs in the UK, and Centum Investment Company Limited in Kenya.
Mandlakazi Gcasamba
Mandlakazi Gcasamba
Mandlakazi Gcasamba CA (SA) is the Head of Operations. Prior to joining SAVCA she was the Head of Operations at LEGACY AFRICA Fund Managers where she was in charge of providing inspired leadership for the business, which involves working with the board of directors in making important policy and strategic decisions. She was part of the team that set up the first Legacy Africa Private Equity Fund. She completed a year of academic articles in Financial Management at the University of Limpopo (UL) as one of the first clerks in the partnership between UJ and UL to assist UL in attaining their CTA Honours accreditation.
She completed the rest of her articles at SNG Grant Thornton where she become an audit manager in the Financial Services division.
Within the Academia, Mandlakazi was a Senior Lecturer in Financial Management at North West University. She was also a Financial Officer at Cloud Atlas Investing where she was actively involved in the application to get the SARB to amend legislation, and allow local investment schemes to issue a pioneering Pan African ETF which facilitates a more efficient manner of investing in African developed markets.
