Our History
Umthombo Wealth was founded in 2013 by three entrepreneurial investment professionals who saw an opportunity to unlock value for both stakeholders and the South African market. Founder, Bafedile Mafologele remains an integral part of the company’s operations as CEO. In 2015 the company commenced managing traditional assets and launched the Umthombo Conservative Fund in January of 2016. Since this milestone, our product offering has expanded to offer a wide range of fixed income and equity portfolios across the risk spectrum to suit even the most decerning investor. Our product offering includes equities, listed bonds and a flexible income fund.
Our organisational structures and culture are both premised on good governance, high ethical standards, clear segregation of duties and accountability. Our sound business principles are fundamental to our long-term sustainability and success. Umthombo holds a Category 2 FSCA license and are an authorized FSP.
Our Vision & Values
The mission of Umthombo Wealth is to be a leading asset management company on the African continent, creating wealth for our clients, colleagues and the community.
Our Team
Executive Team
Our people are our greatest asset. Umthombo Wealth is 100% staff-owned so our people are inspired to deliver only the best value to our clients. It is only with the determination and dedication of our people that we can serve our clients and generate long-term value for all stakeholders. We believe in fully embracing the cultural diversity of South Africa and promoting inclusivity in ethos and thought. We focus on cultivating a vibrant work environment where individual potential is maximised and the company’s culture of teamwork, performance, excellence, innovation, accountability and client service is reinforced.
Nokuthula Mthombothi
Nokuthula began her financial services career in 2002 when she joined Metropolitan Asset Managers as a graduate trainee. Nokuthula furthered her asset management experience when she joined Investec Asset Management as an investment administrator. She went on to join Kagiso Asset Management from 2006 as head of institutional and retail client services. In addition to portfolio administration, she had a variety of responsibilities that included improving administration efficiencies and risk controls, managing the client services team and assisting with compliance monitoring and reporting.
Nokuthula spent 4 years at Mvunonala Asset Managers where she was responsible for setting up the operations, client servicing and compliance functions. She was responsible for servicing the business’ institutional clients, client relations and vendor management.She has been with Umthombo Wealth in the position of Operations Director since inception but became Managing Director in 2023.
Alexander Duys CFA,CAIA
Alexander began his financial services career at Dynamic Wealth (February 2008) as an equity analyst, he was promoted to investment strategist and subsequently his last position was portfolio manager. Alexander joined Mvunonala Asset Managers on July 2011 and formed part of the founding investment team. He made a monumental contribution to the establishment of Mvunonala Asset Managers which enabled the business to grow from start up to having assets under management (AUM) in excess of R7 billion.
He was the lead senior equity portfolio manager during his tenure at the firm and left the firm in the capacity of Head of Equities. Alexander joined Umthombo Wealth on 1st August 2017 as Head of Equities and Senior Portfolio Manager. Alexander was appointed chief investment officer (CIO) in November 2020. Alexander has a B.com Investment Management degree from the University of Pretoria, he is a CFA and CAIA charterholder.
Nombuso Zwane CA(SA)
Nombuso completed her articles and clerkship with Deloitte & Touche. During her training she gained extensive exposure to various sectors as the Auditor in charge. Nombuso spent time in North Carolina (United States) with Deloitte & Touche LLP where she gained international experience as an auditor in charge. Nombuso qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 2015.
She later joined Nasonti Resources Group as the Financial Controller where her role included financial reporting, companies act and taxation compliance as well as budget management. Nombuso joined Sampada as a Financial Controller responsible for the Group’s two subsidiaries; Sampada Retail and Sampada Shopping Centre before her promotion to Chief Financial Officer where she is responsible for the entire group’s financial management and reporting.
Bafedile Mafologele CA(SA)
Bafedile joined Ernst & Young as an articled clerk and qualified as a Chartered Accountant. He joined Chartis Insurance (previously AIG SA), a subsidiary of the US listed AIG Inc, as chief accounting officer responsible for financial reporting and liaison with regulators, including the Financial Services Board (FSB) and the South African Reserve Bank.
He joined Mvunonala Holdings in 2010 as Group Chief Operating Officer responsible for the operations of the Mvunonala Group. Bafedile was the managing executive of Mvunonala Asset Managers which was established in 2011 under the group’s umbrella. He departed in April 2014 by which time he had assisted in growing assets to R2.5 billion. He was part of the team that assisted Bophelo Benefit Services, a subsidiary of Mvunonala, which won the coveted Imbasa Yegolide Principal Officers Association Award for best trust and beneficiary administrator of the year in 2013.
In 2014 Bafedile joined Novare Actuaries and Consultants as director and head of fund consulting. Novare Actuaries and Consultants advise on assets over R220 billion. Bafedile also served as the Managing Director of Novare Investments. A boutique investment management firm focusing on managing offshore assets, multi-management and funds of hedge funds.
Investment Team
Matthew Zunckel, CFA
Matthew started his career at Oasis Asset Management in 2012 where he was an equity analyst for 4 years. Matthew then left Oasis to join Mvunonala Asset Management for 2 years as a senior equity analyst before joining Umthombo Wealth as an assistant portfolio manager and analyst in September 2018. Matthew is currently an equity fund manager and analyst. Matthew obtained a Bachelor of Business Science in Finance from UCT and is a CFA charter holder. Matthew’s other academic accolades include his runner up position in the highly prestigious Budget Speech essay competition. The essay was titled “Nationalisation of the SA mining sector.” Matthew holds a distinction in Management accounting 1 from UNISA, which compliments his financial accounting experience.
Molefe Leballo
Molefe joined Umthombo Wealth’s Fixed Income team from the SARB in 2018. He began his FI career at Standard Bank treasury and stayed there from 2006 to 2007. From 2007 to 2008, while at the South African Reserve Bank, he focused on formulating decisions applications based on exchange control policies, rules and regulations and he was involved in conducting inspections countrywide. Subsequently, from 2008 Molefe’s key responsibilities at the SARB were the management of gold transactions; development of analytical models to support management decisions; monitoring external fund managers; trading Fixed Income and foreign exchange in the spot, forward and swap market; market research; contribution to strategy formulation and implementation and the management of Fixed Income and money market portfolios. Molefe completed a B. Com degree in Economics from the University of Pretoria . Additionally, Molefe holds and advanced Diploma in Central Banking from UNISA as well as an ACI Dealing certificate (Financial Markets Association).
Warden Mokoka
Warden Mokoka is a fixed income portfolio manager and analyst at Umthombo Wealth. He joined Umthombo Wealth’s Fixed Income team from Bloomberg L.P as an assistant portfolio manager. He was part of the Bloomberg EMEA Fixed Income team focusing on Africa Sub-Saharan markets including South Africa since 2014. He helped improve the Bloomberg fixed income coverage, analytics, portfolio OMS and Bonds electronic trading (Primary & Secondary Market). Before he was a Corporate Finance Analyst focusing on IPOs, M&As, JVs and grants and indexing within Bloomberg New Energy Finance, this was after having started his investment industry career in 2008 as a client services analyst at Sanlam Investment Management (SIM). Warden has a B.com Hons (Investment Management) and he is currently a candidate for CFA level I.
Nomtha Ngumbela
Nomtha Ngumbela joined Umthombo Wealth in 2021 in the role of Assistant Portfolio Manager and Equity Analyst. Nomtha obtained a Bachelor of Commerce degree majoring in Management and Finance at the University of Cape Town and a postgraduate B.Com Honours degree in Business Finance from the University of the Witwatersrand. She began her career in financial markets as a Commercial Underwriter at Coface South Africa before joining Effectus Capital Management to spearhead the company’s research capabilities as a generalist analyst. Her coverage included both onshore and offshore companies as well as the development of the ESG and Innovation Marker framework at ECM. Nomtha is the youngest Board Member of the Investment Analyst Society of South Africa and has deal advisory experience in the fields of student housing, social housing and mobile payments.
Sandile Magagula
Sandile Magagula started his career as Trainee Equity Analyst at Umthombo Wealth in 2016. After completing his training, he was then promoted to Junior Equity Analyst. Sandile currently has the role of role of Equity and ESG Analyst. Sandile covers a range of different sectors but has built expertise in the general miners as well as gold industry. Sandile completed an MCom Financial Management (2015), in which his mini dissertation explored the theme of leverage financing and firm value in the JSE. His previous degrees were also undertaken in the University of Pretoria which includes a BCom (Hons) Financial Management. Before joining Umthombo Wealth Sandile’s experience ranged from financial advisory to various academic and financial posts in the University of Pretoria. He is currently a candidate for CFA level I.
Talya Ginsberg
Talya Ginsberg completed a B. Com Honours degree in Economics and a B. Com degree with majors in Economics, Econometrics and Investments at the University of Johannesburg. She was awarded Top Economics 3 student (2017) and top Investment Management 3B student (2017). Before joining Umthombo Wealth as a Jnr. Equity & ESG Analyst in 2020; she held internship roles in an impact investment firm (headquartered in Geneva), as well as corporate finance analysis experience in M&A. Talya, has passed her CFA Level 1.
Empowerment Credentials
Umthombo Wealth is proud to be a Level 1 contributor in accordance with the B-BBEE Codes of Good Practise on Black Empowerment. Our commitment to transformation is evidenced in the diversity our staff, the manner in which we conduct our business and our commitment to grow and revolutionalise the South African investment landscape.
POLICY DOCUMENTS
Treating Customers Fairly
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Complaints Policy
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POPI Policy
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PAIA Policy
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Conflict of Interest Policy
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