Chartered Accountant Sizwe Nxasana, was born in 1958 at Lamontville and matriculated at Mariannhill in 1976. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Fort Hare) and a Bachelor of Accounting Science (Honours) degree (UNISA) and was one of the first 10 African CA’s in South Africa.
In 1989 Nxasana established Sizwe & Co, the first black-owned audit practice in Kwazulu-Natal. In 1996 he became the founding partner of Nkonki Sizwe Ntsaluba, the first black-owned national firm of accountants, where he remained until March 1998. The firm is now the fifth largest audit firm in South Africa. He left to join Telkom SA as Chief Executive Officer in 1998.
During his seven years at Telkom, Nxasana oversaw the listing of Telkom on both the JSE and NY Stock Exchange, the only IPO of a state-owned company since the end of Apartheid.



His experience in the financial services industry includes non-executive directorships at FirstRand Bank and Rand Merchant Bank, NBS Boland Bank and the Development Bank of South Africa and as Chairman of Mesele-Hoskens Insurance Group.
Nxasana joined FirstRand Bank in 2006 and has held a number of key positions. In January 2010 he was appointed CEO of the FirstRand Group, in the process becoming the most senior black executive in the African banking industry. He is currently Executive Director at FirstRand Ltd.
Due to this position within his industry he also serves as Vice-Chairman of the South African Revenue Services Board and is a member of the Income Tax Special Court.
Nxasana served as a Non Executive Director of Vodacom Group Limited until September 9, 2005 and as a Director of Co-ordinated Network Investments (Proprietary) Limited and Telkom SA Ltd. from 1998 until 2005. He also served as National President of Absa Group Limited from 1991 to 1994
Nxasana serves on several social awareness boards and was awarded an honorary doctorate from his alma mater the University of Fort Hare in 2004.
He is married to Judy Dlamini. They have two children, Nandi and Sifiso Nkanyezi.