⬤ OUR PEOPLE
Leading with Excellence
A culture of growth, collaboration, and shared expertise is a core element of the way we work.
Our belief is that by investing in our people, we can deliver the best outcomes for our clients.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
Ethan Dube
MSc (Economics), MBA (Sweden)
Non-Executive Director
Ethan is the Chief Executive Officer and a founder of Vunani Limited Group, established in the late 1990s. With over 35 years of experience in corporate finance and asset management he previously worked at Standard Chartered Merchant Bank, Southern Asset Managers and Infinity Asset Management. Ethan holds an MSc in Economics and an Executive MBA from Sweden.
Nkosinathi Chonco
MPhil in Business Ethics
Non-Executive Director (Chairman)
Nkosinathi was appointed as an independent non-executive director of Vunani Fund Managers in September 2011. Prior to this he served as a member of the Group Executive Committee responsible for empowerment and corporate affairs at Metropolitan. Nkosinathi led the team that formulated the empowerment strategy and initiative which resulted in Metropolitan partnering with Kagiso Trust Investments as the BEE partner. Under his leadership, Metropolitan Group was recognized as a leading black empowered financial services group by the Black Management Forum (BMF), Financial Mail and Business Map. Previously Nkosinathi served as an executive director responsible for human resources at Maskew Miller Longman and was employed at British Petroleum as a senior human resources manager.
Thobeka Bonoyi
BAdmin, BCom (Hons), Master Taxation
Non-Executive Director (Indepedent)
Thobeka’s qualifications include a Master’s Taxation from University of Cape Town, BCom (Hons) (Economics) from University of Western Cape, BAdmin from the University of Western Cape and she is currently busy with Chartered Secretariat.
Thobeka is currently Group Company Secretary and Governance at MTN Group with the responsibility of providing advisory counsel to the MTN board on governance and regulatory requirements as well as governance assurance across the 18 countries in which MTN has operations.
Thobeka previously held the position of Group Company Secretary at PetroSA. Prior to that, she was Group executive at Woolworths (2012 – 2016) responsible for the Group Company Secretariat leading the Legal, Risk and Compliance Departments for all entities under Woolworths Holdings as well as Country Road and David Jones in Australia. She served as Group Executive at Metropolitan responsible for Corporate Governance for a period of 4 years and post the merger with Momentum for a period of two years; leading legal, risk, compliance, and tax departments as well as Company Secretariat.
Lithalethu Mtembu
BCom (Hons), CA (SA), MBA
Non-Executive Director (Indepedent)
Lithalethu has 15 years’ experience in both public and private sectors leading Financial and Operational teams. Her experience includes forensic investigation and project management on infrastructure projects.
Lithalethu is currently a senior lecturer at the University of South Africa (UNISA).
She also served as a consultant to various businesses in a wide range of industries advising on strategy, operations and corporate governance.
Butana Khoza
BCom, PGDip (Accounting), CA(SA)
Chief Executive Officer
Butana qualified as a Chartered Accountant (CA(SA)) in 1994 and began his career with the Southern Life group in 1995. Initially working in internal audit, he quickly advanced to a managerial role within the investment division. His diverse managerial experience culminated in his role as Financial Director of Futuregrowth during a pivotal phase of its corporatisation.
In 1998, Butana left Southern Life to become a founding executive in the investment banking division of the African Harvest Group. He played a key role in the management buyout of the group in 2002, leading to its transition to Vunani Limited in 2004, where he remains a significant shareholder.
Butana served as CEO of Vunani Fund Managers from July 2014 to March 2020, steering the firm through a period of considerable growth and development. He rejoined Vunani Fund Managers in 2023 after serving as Group Chief Executive Officer at Vunani Limited from 2020 to 2023.
Safs Narker
BCom, PGDA, CA(SA), CFA
Executive Director
Safs brings over 18 years of extensive investment experience to his role as Chief Investment Officer. He began his career at Deloitte in Cape Town, completing his articles in 1999 with a focus on financial services companies. He then expanded his international expertise with KPMG in Dubai, where he specialised on the banking and insurance sectors across the Middle East.
In 2000, Safs joined Ernst & Young, working primarily with asset management and insurance clients. He moved to Metropolitan in 2001, where he held various senior management roles before transitioning to the Asset Management division in 2005. His roles there included product development, analysis and portfolio management.
Following the merger with Momentum, Safs continued as an analyst covering the financial services sector and managed the Momentum Financial Services Fund.
Michelle Savage
BCompt (Hons), CA(Z)
Executive Director
Michelle joined Vunani Fund Managers in 2007 in the capacity of Financial Manager and is responsible for the preparation of the company’s monthly management accounts, budgets and annual financial statements.
Michelle trained as a chartered accountant in Zimbabwe where she served her articles with Deloitte & Touche and was an audit partner in the firm for three years.
She was a director at Templeton Asset Management until May 2002 when she relocated to the UK and worked as revenue manager for ACI Worldwide, a provider of electronic payment solutions to global financial institutions.