STAFF WRITER
The Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators in Zimbabwe (ICSAZ) has elected Taona Munzvandi, as its new president.
Munzvandi, who is the managing director of Daxilon Security, takes over the presidency from Letitia Gaga,who served two terms from 2018.
Scientific and Industrial Research Development Centre executive director for finance and administration, Gladys Mudyahoto, was re-elected vice president of ICSAZ.
Also elected into the presidium – joining Munzvandi and Mudyahoto- was Jonathan Dube, head of finance and administration at Competition and Tariff Commission, as vice president.
Munzvandi, is a former chief executive officer of the Grain Marketing Board Pension Fund, who set up the pension fund from scratch in 2001 and remained in charge of it until last year, when he left to establish Daxilon Security.
In his acceptance speech, Munzvandi said he was looking forward to tackling the challenges posed by Covid-19 pandemic.
“Nobody had budgeted for this new (COVID-19) environment. It has really affected even those organisations we thought were financially stable. Everybody has been shaken by this development. We have to relook at our financial discipline and planning,” he said.
Munzvandi is optimistic that chartered secretaries and accounting professionals were well placed to tackle the economic and business challenges their organisations faced.
“Despite the difficulties, which are considerable, we are confident that our members will survive and that the institutions in which they are working will survive,” he said.
He said ICSAZ, which rely on subscriptions from members, has been adversely affected by the pandemic and the economic difficulties affecting the whole country.
Even members who are gainfully employed, Muzvandi said were struggling financially, with the value of their earnings in most cases diminishing all the time.
“However, I am optimistic. We cannot fail. For if our members fail the institutions they lead will fail. I believe it will be possible for them to continue operating until the environment normalises. This could be a new normal requiring survival skills,” he said.
Prior to establishing the Grain Marketing Pension Fund, Munzvandi, who is a registered public accountant, worked for Fidelity Life Assurance, the Mining Industry Pension Fund and the Auditor General’s Office.
He is a former ICSAZ vice-president, councillor, executive committee member, marketing and strategy committee chairman and chairman of the Institute of Business and Accounting Studies, which is an ICSAZ subsidiary.
He is chairman of Premier Knowledge Consultant Centre – South Africa.
He is a past chairman of the Eastern and Southern African Continent – AMC International and is a Zimbabwe Association of Pension Funds councillor.
Munzvandi holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree from the University of Zimbabwe and a Bachelor of Computing Science (BCompt.) degree from the University of South Africa (Unisa).
Mudyahoto holds an MBA degree from the University of Zimbabwe and is chairperson of the MARSH Umbrella Fund board of trustees and a member of the advisory committee of the Korea Programme on International Agriculture (KOPIA).
She is also a member of the Public Accountants and Auditors Board (PAAB).
Dube also holds an MBA from the University of Zimbabwe and a Bachelor of Commerce Accounting (Honours) degree.
He is a registered public accountant and a member of several professional accounting bodies. He has held managerial positions in both the public and private sector in such varied sectors as health, petroleum, manufacturing, agribusiness and agrochemicals.
