Zanele Hala is steering PetroSA’s IT function through one of the most consequential periods in the organisation’s history and she is doing it while lifting others.
As acting CIO, Zanele Hala is responsible for the full technology support required by the country’s fuel supply mandate while simultaneously managing PetroSA’s transition towards a new entity called SANPC. She is doing this with a constrained budget, a team of over 30 people, and no runway for new technology investment.
“Part of being an effective leader, you have to navigate not only the technical environment in which you operate, but also the strategic environment your organisation functions in, and the broader platform in which that entity exists,” she says.
The day-to-day reality of the role is one of constant context-switching. Within a single hour, Zanele may move from resolving an SAP pricing issue affecting the sales division, to managing an integration failure between SAP and an external system, to appearing in person at an executive board meeting 20 km away.
“It has been a huge opportunity in the sense that it has stretched me from being a technical person and operational manager to ensuring strategic leadership,” she says. The challenge, as she describes it, is not any single responsibility but the constant switching between them.
The SANPC transition adds a further layer. Her IT function is responsible for providing the technology support that transition requires, while operations continue uninterrupted. For PetroSA, those operations carry a national mandate: ensuring the country’s fuel supply. Zanele’s team is responsible for ensuring systems enable that mandate at every level.
Stretching what you have
Financial pressure rules out new technology investment. “We don’t have the luxury to venture into new and emerging technologies as and when we want to,” she explains. The focus is on extending what is already in place, and the team has found ways to make that work.
The clearest example is in aviation. PetroSA provides fuel to airports across South Africa. Aircraft turnarounds arriving roughly every twenty minutes generated a high volume of sales data that had to be reported back to head office and processed manually. “That became quite an enormous task for our business to fulfil and that's where we use robotics to integrate with those airports to bring those high-volume sales into our ERP system,” Zanele explains.
The solution came entirely from within the team, with no external investment. “When you have a seasoned team that has been around this long and understands their environment so well, they have the ability to research and find out how far they can stretch these applications.” The constraint has become the driver of innovation.
A career built through circumstance
Zanele did not plan a career in technology. Her passions were geography, astronomy and astrology. When her mother could no longer afford the fees at the Triple M School of Marketing in Rondebosch, she applied to what is now the Cape Peninsula University of Technology and IT was the only course available.
She studied part-time for two years while working retail at Tyger Valley Shopping Centre and sending money home. “She was raising us on her own, so while I was studying part-time, I was sending money home. By my third year, I was able to study full-time. Completing my diploma was not just a personal milestone. From where our parents come from, having a child finish a qualification is a major achievement. Securing a permanent role in technology made it even more significant.”
An internship at Chevron, then operating as Caltex, followed. She managed a library system at the Caltex plant in Blouberg, maintaining and enhancing it until she was offered a permanent role. The culture, however, was harder to navigate. “I felt that being a young black woman at the time was challenging and the culture was difficult for me to navigate, so I left.”
She chose Unilever in Durban, and describes it as the best decision she made. In four years she progressed from developer to systems analyst to business analyst, working across SAP domains including HR, security and business warehouse. She was also entrusted with monitoring executive utilisation of the analytical systems the business had implemented and providing hands-on support where needed.
The experience sharpened a conviction she has carried since. “You expect decision-making to be made based on data. Where's the data? The systems. Systems that you went and bought and put investment in. And no one is using them.”
After four years she was headhunted to PetroSA in Cape Town, where a supervisory role was available. She led an SAP security team, transitioned the organisation from single to composite security roles across multiple sites, and expanded into HR, sales and distribution, materials management and then ERP management before moving into the acting CIO role.
Lifting others while you rise
Zanele credits two leaders at PetroSA for shaping how she leads. Both gave her room to grow and led with what she describes as kindness. “Once you have had leaders that have impacted your journey in that manner, you remember that you also have a responsibility to others, to give in a way that reminds them they have a responsibility to give to others. That is impact. It is not just about you. It goes on and on.”
Her goals for 2026 reflect the moment PetroSA is in. “Through these muddy transitional waters, my goal is to continue to grow, strive, and to continue lifting others.”
Outside of work, she gardens and grows her own produce, a habit she picked up from her mother and is now passing on to her children. She returns consistently to astronomy and astrology. “I always go back to astrology and astronomy. I have this interest in stars and the universe, and I think somehow it is connected to just who I am.”
She is currently reading The Young Entrepreneur's Playbook by South African author Lindile Xoko, using it to think through what entrepreneurship might look like in her own life and to build practical examples for her children.
Her definition of a good life is uncomplicated. “Authenticity is about keeping things genuine and simple, in both the way we work and how we relate to others. When you are open to truth, it brings clarity, and that clarity allows you to accept yourself and the people around you. For me, that is what makes a life fulfilling.”
