Mphumzeni Lukhele won big at this year’s Institute of Internal Auditors South Africa Annual Gala Dinner and Awards ceremony.

Lukhele has been recently announced as the overall winner of the Institute of Internal Auditors South Africa 2023 Excellence in Internal Audit Private Sector award.

Lukhele was also the runner-up for the IIA SA 2023 Excellence in Internal Audit Leadership: Public Sector.

The experienced Auditor is a Liswati professional and is the current Head of Internal Audit and Forensics Services (IAFS) at MTN Eswatini having spent over 9 years with the company.

He was nominated by his fellow members and professionals/colleagues for two categories (Excellence in Internal Audit Leadership and Excellence in Internal Audit Private Sector) awards that are hosted by the IIA SA annually to award deserving professionals in the internal audit space.

The Institute of Internal Auditors South Africa (IIA SA) is part of an international network representing the interests of Internal Auditors worldwide.

As part of this international network, the IIA SA upholds and supports the fundamental tenets of the profession – the Code of Ethics and the International Standards for the Professional Practice of Internal Auditing.

The purpose of the awards is to:

• Recognize and reward excellence and professionalism in internal audit.
• Attract and retain high calibre members to the profession; and
• Motivate members towards continual improvement.

After his nomination, Lukhele was taken through a rigorous assessment by the IIA SA’s Nominations Committee which included a series of interviews, testimonials, and before he was named a finalist.

Lukhele was awarded as the overall winner and runner-up during the IIA SA Annual Gala Dinner that took place on Tuesday, 15th August 2023 at The Pavilion, Sandton Convention Centre, with the theme “Interconnect – The Internal Audit Matrix”.

He was awarded the accolades because of the following:

• He is a true and trusted business advisor with a proactive approach to anything that warrants to be sorted before the business gets hurt.
• He is pushing for that agenda to be also incorporated by fellow professionals in the Kingdom of Eswatini (through the IIA Eswatini Chapter) by pushing them to evaluate if they are adding value or just doing the bare minimum based on the work that they do.
• He promotes and demonstrates deep knowledge and understanding of the Internal Audit Standards and the IIA profession as well.
• He has opened his arms to assist fellow public and private sector auditors.
• He is a man that displays a high level of integrity and promotes an ethical culture, demonstrating a commitment to the IIA values of integrity, respect, collaboration, courage, and collective accountability.
• His collaborative spirit is seen internally as well as externally during the Eswatini ACFE and Eswatini Institute of Accountants events where he contributes to those professional bodies.

Interviewed by the IIA SA media crew after receiving his award Lukhele expressed gratitude and said he hopes this will also inspire others.

“This means so much not only to me but to the profession in Eswatini as well. Internal audit adds so much value and it is very critical that we see the benefits of our courage in the process, I do hope that this award will give courage to the upcoming Auditors to work hard and know that they can achieve a lot.”

He dedicated the award to his late mother. “I dedicate the award to my late mom, my MTN team and colleagues, and my fellow professionals for always supporting, challenging, and holding me accountable. This is a demonstration as well that whatsoever you do, do it as if the world is looking at you.”