Mbali Mabaso

What does your company do?

ISIKHUTHAZI is a mentoring initiative aimed at assisting aspiring Chartered Accountants in achieving their dreams of becoming a Chartered Accountant.The name Isikhuthazi is a Zulu noun which means “the encourager”. An encourager is a person who can inspire others with hope, courage and confidence to reach their full potential. The core focus of ISIKHUTHAZI is to Encourage, Educate and Empower aspiring Chartered Accountants to believe in themselves, believe in their dreams and never give up on their dreams. o Encourage by aiding others to be more determined, hopeful, and confident. o Educate by imparting important knowledge that will assist others in their growth and development. o Empower by assisting others in realizing their strength to conquer anything in life. The mentoring initiative consists of live online interactive sessions, pre-recorded online sessions and one on one sessions focused on assisting mentees with enhancing their soft skills, professional skills, technical skills, and exam technique skills. The live sessions take place on weekends and in each session a CA(SA) guest is invited to share their CA journey to inspire the mentees by encouraging, educating, and empowering them. The one-on-one sessions cater for the individual areas of concern they need assistance with either in specific modules or general guidance. In 2023 an Alumni community was launched to mentor the newly qualified CAs(SA) with their career's, through career mentorship which is aimed at assisting them with living their purpose. Isikhuthazi is a home for the next generation of leaders of our Country through the power of mentorship.

What is your biggest success?

The biggest success thus far has been the blessing of mentoring the mentees from being aspiring Chartered Accountants to seeing them being qualified Chartered Accountants. We currently have over 70 mentees who have qualified as CAs(SA) through the mentorship.The awards obtained thus far have been as follows: Women of ABASA under 35 Trailblazer of the year. SAICA 2022 Top 35 under 35 Finalist. The following publications have also enabled Isikhuthazi to reach more mentees: 1.To encourage, educate and empower through the power of mentorship – June 2022 Accountancy SAhttp://magazine.accountancysa.org.za/asa-june-2022/page-22 2.Top 35 under 35 finalists’ features – October 2022 and November 2022 Accountancy SA https://btpubs.co.uk/publication/?i=764071&p=101&view=issueViewer http://magazine.accountancysa.org.za/asa-november-2022/page-85 3.A glimpse into the talent war – December 2022 Accountancy SA http://magazine.accountancysa.org.za/asa-december-2022-january-2023/page-80 4.How CA Mbali Mabaso is living a life that matters – August 2023 CFO SA https://cfo.co.za/articles/how-ca-mbali-mabaso-is-living-a-life-that-matters/

What has been your biggest hurdle?

The biggest hurdle for Isikhuthazi experienced thus far was making the digital learning experience seamless for the mentees. Since Isikhuthazi is a digital learning space where the user experience enables a good learning experience for the mentees. Over the years together with the developer have evolved the learning experience to ensure that the mentees have uninterrupted learning through a user-friendly portal on the website which enables learners to access videos of past recorded sessions and download material of the past sessions. Yes, we love live sessions because that is the effective learning but through experience it became vital to ensure that the ongoing learning is experienced by the learners beyond the live sessions, hence we ensured that the portal is enhanced to enable a better learning experience. Even if they miss the live sessions, they know that they will be accommodated with the portal which houses all the material of the live sessions held.