Cas Coovadia

Cas obtained his B.Com from the University College – Durban in 1971. He completed the Housing Finance Course with the Wharton Real Estate Centre at the University of Pennsylvania. He also completed the Effective Directors Programme with the Kagiso School of Leadership. He has contributed to numerous articles and publications on housing finance, civil society, local government and the role of civic organisations in governance.

Cas is the newly appointed CEO of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA) and former managing director of The Banking Association South Africa (BASA). He has played a central role in the negotiations leading to the signing of the Financial Sector Charter and is playing a critical role in the implementation of agreements reached in the Charter.
Cas is the immediate past chairman of The Johannesburg Civic Theatre and Vice-Chairperson of the Trust for Urban Housing Finance. He is also Chairperson of the National Business Initiative and Treasurer of the African Union for Housing Finance and also serves on the Board of the Centre for Development and Enterprise. He is also First Deputy-President of the International Union for Housing Finance (IUHF). He served as the President of the IUHF for five years. He serves as a Council member of the University of Witwatersrand. He is also on the board of the Nepad Business Foundation and the Board of Business Unity South Africa. He is also the Chairman of the Johannesburg Development Agency, a corporatized entity of the City of Joburg. Cas represents BASA on the Board of the International Banking Federation (IBFeD). BASA is the only African association of banks that is a member of IBFeD.
Cas was instrumental in the conceptualisation and establishment of Community
Bank in South Africa and is passionate about the area of access to financial services to the broad spectrum of people in South Africa. He has considerable experience in housing finance, SMME support, local government restructuring, dynamics of organised business and the financial environment in the SADC region.

He served articles for training as a chartered accountant and ran an accounting practice for a number of years. He also spent time with the Kagiso Group managing a small venture capital company that invested in emerging manufacturing enterprises. He is thus proficient in the financial environment and able to get on top of issues fairly quickly.

Cas is married to Sabera Bobat and has a daughter by the name of Nabeelah. He has a son, Yusuf, from a previous marriage.

Cas joined the Trek for Mandela expedition in 2016 because The Banking Association SA has been a sponsor of the initiative for a number of years. He felt it would help the fundraising effort if he joined the expedition.