Audit Committee

Independent Audit Committee Chairperson

Ms Rene Van Wyk

Who is Ms Rene Van Wyk?

Ms Rene van Wyk is a distinguished Chartered Accountant (SA) and business executive with over three decades of experience spanning the public and private sectors. Her leadership track record reflects extensive expertise in corporate governance, audit oversight, and strategic advisory, underpinned by robust financial acumen and operational insight.

Career highlights include:

Ms Rene Van Wyk currently serves as the Independent Audit Committee Chairperson for the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS), a position she assumed in January 2025. In addition, she chairs multiple audit committees including those of Nelson Mandela University, Libcare Medical Scheme, Macsteel Service Centres SA, and the Automobile Association of South Africa, where she also holds non-executive directorships. She is Lead Independent Director at Macsteel and a Trustee of the Nelson Mandela University Trust and the UNISA Foundation. Her past governance roles span major entities such as Statistics South Africa, SABS, QCTO, the Department of Trade and Industry, and the National Empowerment Fund, among others.

As a facilitator for the Institute of Directors South Africa (IoDSA), Rene has designed and presented financial and governance training for boards across the continent, customising programmes for both local and international audiences. Her work has been pivotal in demystifying financial oversight for non-financial directors and strengthening audit committee effectiveness. She is a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), the Institute of Directors South Africa (IoDSA), and the Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants of Southern Africa (ABASA). Known for her integrity, strategic foresight, and passion for developing others, Rene brings clarity, insight, and diligence to every boardroom she enters.

Ms Rene holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the University of the Witwatersrand, where she was recognised as a Dean’s List student, and a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) degree from Rhodes University. Her professional grounding in finance, complemented by operational and general management experience, positions her as a highly agile and strategic thinker. Her strengths include analytical rigour, commercial awareness, ethical leadership, and a commitment to capacity building.

Independent Audit Committee Member

Dr Prittish Dala

Who is Dr Prittish Dala?

Dr. Dala is an experienced and skilled independent non-executive director who serves on several boards as well as audit, risk and ICT committees providing expertise in audit, risk management, governance, compliance, forensics, ICT, digital transformation, cyber security and privacy. He has over 20 years’ experience across several industry verticals, including an array of local and international client engagements within the public and private sector. 

Dr Prittish Dala's qualifications include:

Qualifications: PhD (Information Technology), Masters (Information Technology) and BSc Hons (Computer Science), Bachelor of Information Technology, Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Lead Auditor ISO 27001 (LA ISO 27001), Certified in the Governance of Enterprise Information Technology (CGEIT), Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC), Certified Information Security Manager (CISM), Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH), Computer Hacking Forensic Investigator (CHFI) and Certified Data Privacy Solutions Engineer (CDPSE).

Independent Audit Committee Member

Ms Aziza Galiel

Who is Ms Aziza Galiel?

Ms Galiel has for almost 7 years Aziza served as a non-executive independent director on the board and associated committees of a JSE listed, multi-national company (Metair Limited and associated subsidiary companies, www.metair.co.za.), and accordingly as part of the Board, was involved in overseeing strategy, corporate governance, international and local acquisitions, audit, and risk management.  She served on the Audit Committee, and was chairperson of the Social and Ethics Committee. She is currently a Non-executive independent director. Chair of Audit and Risk Committee, and member of Social and Ethics Committee at Aargon Asset Management.

Career Highlights include:

Auditing Articles at KPMG Cape Town. Her key responsibilities during this time was the planning, execution and supervision of statutory audits, compliance reviews, accounting and tax assignments, and due diligence reviews of clients operating in various industries. Two - year secondment to the Kuala Lumpur KPMG office. As an audit manager, her portfolio consisted of special non-statutory audit projects, i.e. planning, implementation, and review of assignments such as due diligences, forensic investigative projects, corporate finance reviews, including M&A transactions and IPO's. The projects typically required working with the client senior executives, stock-brokers, corporate and technical advisors, and lawyers. During this time she participated in a number of cross-border assignments, including South East Asia territories, and the United Kingdom. Her non-assignment duties included the management of a 20-member audit team. Working for the advisory/corporate finance department, turned out to be a significantly different experience from the typical Cape Town audit, and profoundly informed her subsequent career choice. 

Ms Aziza Galiel's qualifications include:

 Ms Galiel is a qualified as Chartered Financial Analyst (2000), South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (1993), member of SAICA, IoDSA (April 2019). BComm degree (UCT ). Post Graduate Diploma in Accounting (UCT). She Completed Part I of the Lifeline/Childline counselling course in September 2010 • Results Coaching Systems – Executive Coaching Programme (2012). Group Psycho-Analytic Therapy Programme– (CGAS).