African Bank CEO Basani Maluleke on quest to alter banking scene among masses

The key aspect that took the bank into curatorship, she said, was an unsustainable business model.

Maluleke said the new bank was launched with a new board and has been implementing new credit policies focusing on lower-risk customers.

Under Maluleke’s leadership, African Bank will early this year introduce its transactional banking product, “MyWORLD”, which will enable its customers to have all their products with the bank, including transactional banking, instead of just having a loan with the bank, as was traditionally the case.

“People want to be able to have everything in one place. You don’t want to have a cheque account in one bank and your loan in another bank. What we are doing now is to bring those things together.”

Currently, over 3,000 of African Bank employees are using MyWORLD in preparation for its launch this year.

Born in Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, Maluleke started her primary school at a local school but her parents later moved her to a private school during the time schools in the township were often disrupted by apartheid police raids.

She admits that she got her “English accent” at the private school.

After finishing school, Maluleke studied a bachelor of commerce at UCT. She finished her BCom and realised she did not really like it. She then studied law as this was her passion, which was inspired by her father, who had a law firm.

She practised law and somehow also “did not like it” and then worked in corporate finance. Maluleke later went to the US to study for an MBA.

On her return, she headed First National Bank’s private clients in 2012. She left the bank and joined a corporate finance firm before moving to African Bank as a nonexecutive director in 2015.

For the success she has attained, Maluleke credits the relationships she has been able to establish through the years. She is the first black female CEO of a commercial bank in South Africa.

Sowetan met her at African Bank’s head office in Midrand.

Well spoken and seemingly gentle, she exudes extreme intelligence.

“Relationships are everything. That’s all that life is about. That’s why we’re here,” she said.

“Relationships help you grow and look at the world differently. People are everything. They teach you empathy. They teach you how to be kinder. They teach you how to be strong. They teach you how to be weak.”

While she has been able to be at the summit of a big bank, Maluleke said there was still a long way for South Africa in growing women’s leadership base.

She said women were not treated fairly in society and the same manifests when they are in leadership.

“You can have one female CEO and think you have done it. You need a lot more. You need more women in leadership positions.”

Maluleke said there is an urgent need for women representation across corporate South Africa and the public sector.

“Once we have that, then we can talk about women being treated better because you are not the only one who stands out,” Maluleke said.

In the little spare time she gets, Maluleke enjoys running and is proud to have finished the 2015 Comrades Marathon.

She is also a lover of tennis and a big fan of Serena Williams.

Maluleke believes Williams’ amazing success has had a positive impact on black women across the world.

“Serena has changed the world for black women. She has made it okay to be a black woman.”

She also unwinds by reading and meditating, and also by spending time with family.