PwC South Africa has formally announced the appointment of Anastacia Tshesane as its incoming Chief Executive Officer, with her tenure officially beginning on 1 July 2026.
This transition marks the end of a distinguished 24-year career at the firm for the current CEO, Shirley Machaba, who is set to retire at the close of her term on 30 June 2026. The succession plan ensures institutional continuity, elevating a nineteen-year veteran of the firm who brings extensive experience and governance oversight to the top executive role.
Tshesane is a deeply established figure within the PwC organisation, having previously held the influential position of Chairman for both the PwC South Africa Governing Board and the PwC Africa Governance Board since July 2021. This dual-board leadership experience is testament to her key role in shaping the firm’s strategic direction and operational integrity across the wider continent. As she transitions to the CEO role, Alsue du Preez, the current PwC Africa Insurance Leader with over eighteen years of partner experience managing large listed financial services clients, will take over both Chairmanship positions, ensuring the stability and strengthening of the firm’s critical governance structures.
Throughout her nearly two decades at the firm, Tshesane has excelled as an Assurance Partner, building deep expertise across a portfolio of highly regulated industries. Her professional focus has spanned the Financial Services, Consumer Markets, and Industrial Products and Services sectors, involving the leadership of major audit engagements for complex local and multinational groups with global operational footprints. PwC Africa CEO Dion Shango commented that Tshesane has been instrumental in the firm’s growth and the reinforcement of the auditing profession itself, highlighting her dedication to ethics, quality, and inclusion as central to her leadership approach.
The new leadership will be tasked with navigating a highly complex and rapidly evolving auditing and consulting landscape in South Africa. The sector is currently facing twin pressures from stringent regulatory changes, such as the Mandatory Audit Firm Rotation (MAFR) rule for JSE-listed companies, and profound technological disruption. According to a report on 2025 Audit Trends by GKL Auditors, the industry is grappling with the need to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) and advanced data analytics, which now handle a significant percentage of routine audit tasks, while simultaneously managing the escalating demand for Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) auditing.
In this competitive and high-stakes environment, the focus on quality and trust is paramount. The South African accounting and audit sector has faced reputational challenges and increased regulatory scrutiny, leading to a focus on transparency and accountability, as noted in a report by GlobeNewswire. Tshesane has indicated that her primary focus in the “next era” for PwC will be sustaining the success of its clients and personnel by prioritising the delivery of quality and building trust in society.
Furthermore, the appointment aligns with PwC’s commitment to transformation and inclusion, a critical strategic pillar in the South African context. Tshesane, who previously served as the firm’s Transformation, Diversity, and Inclusion Leader for the South Market Area, has been vocal about the need to increase diverse representation in financial services. Her elevation to CEO reinforces the firm’s trajectory in meeting its own transformation objectives and upholding its commitment to the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) framework, a crucial element for business success in the region.
Ultimately, the succession from Machaba to Tshesane represents a carefully managed transition designed to provide stable, internal leadership. This continuity is vital as PwC seeks to leverage its global strategy, known as The New Equation, which focuses on building trust and delivering sustained outcomes, to lead clients confidently through increasingly complex business model reinvention challenges across the African continent.