A former director of the Gauteng treasury has been appointed chief financial officer of the Mandela Bay Development Agency.Kholiswa Mgijima succeeds Ashwin Daya, who leaves the development agency at the end of May.Debbie Hendricks has been appointed operations executive of the agency.Hendricks is no stranger to the MBDA, having been part of the initial Helenvale Urban Renewal Programme.She returns to the agency after spending time at the Bay municipality as a senior town planner.Mgijima is a former director for municipal financial governance at the Eastern Cape treasury.She has worked as a consultant for performance improvement in the advisory division of audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in East London.At PWC she undertook assignments in both the public and private sectors, and in local government.She has a BCom from Rhodes University and is studying for a master’s in public administration at Mancosa.The development agency’s CEO, Ashraf Adam, said Mgijima’s appointment was the first to that position of a woman in the agency’s 14 years of existence and was a step in the right direction for transformation.“Mgijima brings a wealth of experience in local government.“The Mandela Bay Development Agency has achieved a series of clean audit outcomes since its inception, a record we intend to maintain,” Adam said.“Mgijima will help the agency maintain and improve this excellent record.”Agency board chair Phil Goduka said the changes to the executive team had already yielded results.“Early in 2017, the agency started to experience delivery challenges that started to impact on its performance targets, partly due to scope creep and the lack of capacity,” he said.“What compounded the challenges of the agency were the departure of founding CEO Pierre Voges and the additional mandate to manage the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium.“Already the agency is starting to see an improvement in its institutional performance and budget expenditure.”The changes are being made as the ANC says it intends to take back control of the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium and entrust its running to a facilities management agency.