Businessman Sizwe Nxasama is highly regarded as a trailblazer as well as the embodiment of black excellence. He was one of the first black individuals to qualify as a chartered accountant at a time when the profession was dominated by white practitioners. 

Having started his career at Unilever, in 1989 he established Sizwe & Co, the first black-owned audit practice in Kwa-Zulu Natal. He went on to become the founding partner of Nkonki Sizwe Ntsaluba, now called Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo (SNG-Grant Thornton) in 1996, which is the fifth largest audit firm in South Africa.

Some of the positions he held over the years include being Telkom SA's Chief Executive Officer in 1998, where he was responsible for its listing on the JSE and New York Stock exchanges, and then Sizwe was the CEO of FirstRand Banking Group since 2005 until he retired in September 2015.

Currently he is  a social entrepreneur who recently founded Future Nation Schools, which is a chain of affordable private schools in South Africa. Mr Sizwe Nxasana spoke to Aurelie Kalenga and Peter Ndoro about what drives his passion for education...