Investments Team

Polo Radebe- Chief Executive Officer 

(BCompt Honours/ CTA; Post graduate diploma in Auditing)

Polo is the co-founder and Chief Executive of IDF and is responsible for the strategic direction, market linkages, deal sourcing and management of the business.

After completing her articles with Gobodo Inc. Polo joined Aloecap, a corporate finance outfit, and later worked for the Standard Bank Property Income Fund. She left the private sector to join Government in 2003 where she served as the Chief Director responsible for BEE at the dti until June 2007. Polo served on the Advisory Board and investment committee of National Empowerment Fund until April 2008. She is currently a non-executive director of Identity Partners (Pty) Limited, IDF Managers (Pty) Limited, Icembe Medical (Pty) Limited and Meago Investments 1 (Pty) Limited. Polo also serves on the advisory board of Wits Business School Centre for Entrepreneurship.

 Justice Kganyago - Senior Business Development Associate

BCom Hons Economics, Part MCom Economics, University of the Witwatersrand

Before joining IDF Managers, Justice was a Portfolio Manager at Business Partners Limited where he was responsible for, amongst other things, product marketing, deal sourcing, deal execution, implementation, and post-investment portfolio management. Justice brings to the team extensive field experience and a passion for SME development.

 Mphethe Tau- Business Development Associate

Cost and Management Accounting, Wits Technikon; Management Advancement Program, Wits Business School

Mphethe’s role as an associate involves research, deal execution and investment monitoring.

Mphethe was previously with Absa Incubator Fund where he was mainly responsible for post investment monitoring of the bank’s SME portfolio. In this role, Mphethe gained considerable experience in managing small business clients and the skill to closely monitor and manage the bank’s credit and equity exposure. Prior to that, Mphethe served his articles on the TOPP programme at Absa.

Board of Directors

Sonja Sebotsa: Chairperson

LLB (Hons) London School of Economics, MA: Economic Policy Management McGill University, SFA UK

Sonja has 11 years transacting and corporate finance advisory experience in Mergers and Acquisitions in South Africa and internationally as well as BEE transactions. She was previously Executive Director of WDB Investment Holdings and prior to that Vice President of Deutsche Bank, South Africa.

Sonja currently serves as a non-executive director of Anglo Platinum, RMB Holdings, Discovery Holdings, Dimension Data SA, Makalani Holdings and is a Trustee of the National Empowerment Fund. Sonja has been recognized by the BMF and ABSIP and is a member of the Presidential Working Group on BEE.

Dr. Lia Vangelatos: Non-Executive Director

B.Compt, UNISA, Doctorate in Business Leadership, UNISA

Dr. Lia has been employed at Anglo American since 1979 and has filled various corporate finance, financial, management accounting, treasury and business development positions. She is presently the Chief Investment Manager at Anglo Zimele, the highly successful and internationally acclaimed Enterprise Development and Empowerment Iniitiative of Anglo American, where she manages a team and takes a leading role in the investment process, sources and negotiates deals, seeks appropriate partners, appraises investment proposals, optimizes deal structuring, conducts due diligence studies, executes and implements investments approved, provides strategic direction and adds value to the porfolio of investments.

Lia has a deep understanding of the small business environment and the business forte to create, develop and grow companies into viable and successfully long-term businesses.

Lia holds a BCompt degree, an MBL (cum laude) and a Doctorate in Business Leadership all through UNISA. In 1989 UNISA's Graduate School of Business Leadership awarded Lia the Board's Gold medal for best MBL student out of a class of 151 graduates and a Scholarship for docoral studies. The central theme of Lia's doctorate was the development of a holistic integrated management model for South African companies.

Lia's interests include nature, travel, reading and music. She is a qualified piano teacher and is an Associate and Licentiate of Trinity College of Music London.

Lucas Malamule Ndala

 Lucas has been employed by Royal Bafokeng Holdings (Pty) Limited since June 2008 as a director (Group Finance). Lucas manages the group finance activities, financial reporting, risk management, group tax and procurement.

 Modula Mofolo

Modula is the Corporate Advisor at Khula Enterprise Finance Limited. She holds B.A. (Law) and LL.B degrees which she attained in 1999; served Articles at Webber Newdigate Attorneys Inc.; got admitted to the bar in 2000 and has since been practicing as a commercial legal adviser and/or in-house counsel in the Financial Services Industry.

CA (SA)

Jesmane is an independent consultant offering transaction advice and finance raising.

She serves as a non-executive director of Senwes, Land Bank, African Women Chartered Accountants Investment Holdings and is the Chairman of the South African Institute of Tax Practitioners.

Jesmane co-founded a BEE investment company (2005-2007) and during her tenure investments were concluded in the financial services and IT sectors. Jesmane has experience in corporate finance and private equity, having worked for Brait Private Equity and in the Corporate Finance department of Anglo American.

She served her articles at KPMG, where she was also a manager in the Corporate Finance department.

Radichaba is a Senior Account Executive, in the Financial Institutions Channel at Khula Enterprise Finance responsible for, amongst others, all aspects of deal making. His current portfolio is approximately R300 million. Prior to joining Khula, he worked in the auditing profession for PKF (PTA) Incorporated. He has extensive financial services and accounting experience having spent over 4 years in these fields.

 Polo Radebe

Dr. Lia Vangelatos