Boitumelo Lekoko is a South African, mother of 2 boys. She confidently says that she lives a purpose-led life, which is to serve and encourage others to a place of healing and finding their light. She is outspoken and believes to be the voice for the voiceless when brought into various platforms. She is a dynamic thinker, entrepreneurial and a problem-solver. A visionary and servant leader.
Boitumelo is a Certified Fraud examiner with over 16 years’ experience in forensic services, fraud risk management and ethics advisory services. She is a Founder and Managing Director of Lekoko Advisory Services, which is a dynamic black female-led, professional services firm specialising in forensic services, fraud risk management and ethics advisory services. They operate from Johannesburg, South Africa. Boitumelo is a seasoned expert in forensics with experience in leading and dealing with complex forensic engagements and high-profile matters in the private and public sectors.
Her role extends to being an independent committee member of boards.
Boitumelo is a former Partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in the Forensic services division. She spent 13 years at PwC raising through the ranks from Senior Associate up to Partnership level. She is also a former Business Unit Leader in the Material Irregularities Unit, at the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA).
What was it like moving from your corporate career in forensics to founding your own business?
When I founded my business, little did I know that I was stepping into my purpose, of serving and encouraging others to a place of healing and finding their light. It however meant that I had to step out of her comfort zone and accept that there is a greater course for my life.
It was challenging in the beginning to adjust to owning a business, the instability with income and losing other salary related benefits, and establishing myself and my company as a brand. This brought all sorts of fear and doubts. However, I believe that God does not call the equipped, He equips those He calls. It increased my faith, and I had to learn to rely on God, and use what I have in front of me.
This empowered me to independently approach clients, with my track record and reputation that I had built as a forensics expert. I’ve learnt to work with what I had- an expert in my field, with client relationships and I used that to put my best foot forward.
Each step gained me the next client, the next project and momentum to excel in this new role. I continue my mission to assist clients solve complex problems related to governance challenges, ethical leadership and consequence management.
What would you say was the biggest sense of gratification for you when you started your business?
Living my purpose has been the biggest gratification. That is being able to do things that I probably would not have had time to do/or seen the need to be involved in. I have been deliberate about establishing myself as a founder/business woman. Being intentional about building my brand, I found myself getting more speaking engagements at prestigious professional conferences, and I continuously use those platforms to amplify my voice, to also spread a message of “hope and healing”, to inspire people to push through their life’s challenges and conquer.
Being a servant leader, going beyond being a seasoned forensic expert, and exercising my passion to uplift communities and to empower the marginalised. I achieve this by being involved in programs that focus on uplifting the youth, especially young women.
Since being a founder, I have expanded and built incredible networks that enable me to empower others, especially women with opportunities and getting them involved in various programs and initiatives for self development, to build ethical leaders.
What’s your take on the shift in gender roles with more and more women starting businesses and/or becoming the main breadwinners?
I recently spoke about this in a podcast interview, that women are empowered to make their own decisions regarding careers and personal priorities.
Whilst that is a positive shift, women also find themselves as breadwinners or providers of their families, including to extended family members. Greater strides can still be made to close the gender parity. Research has shown that, “supporting women entrepreneurship potentially has a significant impact on development, as women entrepreneurs tend to allocate more of their funds towards the improvement of health, education, and overall welfare of their families and communities. Women are also more motivated to go into business to make a social impact.”
On the other side of societal impact is that this evolution shifts women from their feminine role to a masculine role.
The question that society should grapple with is, “are men empowered to deal with empowered women?”
My personal observation is that, overtime, this shift has bred a different type of woman, who not only nurtures and takes care of home, but is also constantly pursuing goals, attaining success and reaching for new and greater heights. This aspect, in most cases, further cuts across to women pursuing men and chasing them, and building these relationships. And then women feel overwhelmed to juggle all these roles, and say that men are not doing their part. However, the impact of these actions of taking over, in most instances, disempowers men.
I am of the view that women need to be conscious and careful about this, and the type of society this is creating. As a Christian woman, I still believe that women must allow men the space to be men- to be the pursuers, providers, and protectors, and take their position, and lead.
This culture creates an expectation by men that women will be the nurturers, homemakers, whilst being pursuers, providers and protectors. Women might say that they are doing all this because men are not doing their part, then it goes back to my question, “are men empowered to deal with empowered women?”
If you could leave behind one key takeaway for future generations of WoC Founders, what would that be?
We need to demystify and debunk the common perception that women can’t uplift one another or work together. A matter of fact is, when women come together, multiplicity and futility takes place. It took women to revolutionise our economic inclusion.
From a South African context, in 1956, some 20,000 women of all races marched to the Union Buildings in Pretoria, to protest against pass laws which would limit the movements of Black, Indian and Coloured women, and where they were allowed to work. This, overtime, resulted in many successes including economic inclusivity of women. So we can work together and achieve greater impact, in fact, we are a force when we come together.
I’m of the view that women who can’t uplift one another is because one of those women are unhealed. As women, we carry so much- the kids, raising them (in most instances on our own), breadwinners, taking care of our homes, including our communities, and being nurturers.
As a result, we are more likely to carry traumas of rejection and abandonment. When we have not healed from that or any other issue, that is when issues of jealousy, bitterness, gossip, unhealthy competition and seeing other women as undeserving, happen. As women, we need to be intentional about healing. Healed women become better partners, raise their kids healthily, serve their community, lead better and do not oppress one another. Women, heal up, so you can lift others as you rise.
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