Africa-Press – South-Africa. Ntomboxolo Nikki Mbengashe has been appointed as CEO of the Postbank South Africa for a period of five years, Cabinet said in a statement on Thursday.
The Postbank is struggling to achieve government’s ambition of becoming an independent, state-owned bank. The Postbank has been separated from the bleeding Post Office, but still needs to secure a banking licence from the SA Reserve Bank to offer credit and other banking products.
Instead, the SA Reserve Bank has warned the Postbank that it is at risk of being kicked out of the national payment system because its security isn’t up to scratch. Last year, the Postbank lost more than R18 million in just three months to cybercrime attacks.
In October 2021, cybercrime cost the Postbank at least R90 million in a single month.
The Reserve Bank gave the Postbank until December 2023 to sort out its security measures, including “serious irregularities” in the issuing of Sassa cards.
Mbengashe joined mortgage broker ooba as chief operating officer two years ago. Previously, she was chief operating officer of Woolworths Financial Services for almost five years.
She also spent almost five years with Absa in various positions, including as chief operating officer of its retail bank.
Before that, Mbengashe worked at Transnet, where she was employed in various executive positions, including as the executive in charge of the Saldanha, Richards Bay and Gqeberha terminals.
In 2019, she also was an advisor to Telkom on whether it should set up a banking and financial services unit.
Mbengashe has an NDip Industrial Engineering from Nelson Mandela University and also earned an MBA from the University of Cape Town.
She will replace Nokwanda Madondo, who has been the acting CEO of the Postbank for the past couple of months.
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