Phylla Jele’s journey has been shaped by people who crossed her path, handed her responsibility she didn't always feel ready for, and offered mentorship that stretched her beyond her own expectations. Now HR and transformation executive at e4 Strategic, she describes her story as a series of defining moments guided by leaders who saw her before she fully saw herself.
This has carried her career since her first real taste of the workplace in 2001, when she joined Afrisam (then known as Alpha).
“I transitioned to HR there. I call it a transition because I didn’t start in HR, I was in customer liaison. I had a degree, but like many South Africans, I was just looking for a job because I had a NSFAS loan to pay, and there was no one to pay that for me. When the company had a programme called the employee development review that allowed employees with degrees to move across departments, I put my name forward,” she says.
“I found myself surrounded by incredible HR professionals. One wasn’t even my manager, but she became someone I would go to and talk to about my career. She’d always tell me that I had proven myself and that the opportunity would come, and she was right. By 2006, four years later, I finally moved into HR as an HR trainee professional. That was the beginning of a beautiful career.”
Phylla says the Afrisam environment then became her bootcamp for all things people and policy.
“It really paved the way for me. I always tell young professionals that the danger is specialising too soon. Spend a few years in generalist HR first because that’s where you learn everything from misconduct, medical boarding, reporting and employee experience. You get to own the entire process.”
Her mentorship journey continued through multiple companies, each offering different opportunities and challenges. Her next chapter took her to 3P Consulting, a smaller setup where she found herself navigating the consulting world under the guidance of her HR executive, Geoff Verschoor.
Deeper learning
“Geoff held my hand through that transition,” she says. “That was a different kind of mentorship because it was about trusting my own experience and learning to deliver HR in a space where people were seconded to government projects. When that company was liquidated, I felt ready. Everything up to that point had prepared me for what came next.”
What came next was Imperial Logistics, where her learning deepened, especially in transformation. “At Imperial, I had Sibongile Zikalala, who was the transformation director. She didn’t even know she was my mentor at first,” Phylla recalls with a smile. “I’d spend an extra hour with her after meetings just to talk and bounce off ideas. She had such a wealth of knowledge, especially as transformation was becoming such a critical part of South Africa’s business landscape. Through her, I learnt to sit confidently at the exco table, to speak from a place of insight and preparation.”
This kind of stretching would become a theme in her development when she joined Tracker. Mentorship stopped being a fortunate accident and became a structured part of leadership development.
“We were given a list of executives available for mentoring, and we had to choose our mentors. I picked the Tracker ops director, Ron Knott, because everyone said he was a hard nut. I had to think differently, prepare differently, respond differently. I couldn’t bring anything half-baked. It was a level of pressure that refined how I showed up,” she explains.
“I asked him what keeps him up at night, and he said not knowing where the high-value vehicles were. That honesty and vulnerability shaped our relationship. He also taught me that mentorship must have structure. Every meeting had to have two agenda items, one professional and one personal. That’s how you grow as a whole person.”
From this, Phylla says she discovered that mentorship isn’t always comfortable as it challenged her to step into the spotlight.
All about long-term growth
“He once brought up something I had said during our mentorship meetings while he was presenting at exco. Suddenly, I was called into the meeting completely unprepared to elaborate, and it was terrifying, but it gave me exposure to executive leadership. I stood there and shared that in 2013 we had 34 IR cases, and by 2017 we had 8. That was a proud moment because it showed the impact of mentorship and learning by doing.”
“He would bring me into his projects, even the regulatory ones, and give me parts to lead,” she says. “He would give me organisational projects like culture reviews. He almost believed in me more than I believed in myself. Working with him taught me how to speak to leadership. I was in interviews with exco-level people. I learnt how to respond, how to conduct myself. I saw a different level of thinking and it grew on me. It taught me that when someone gives you their time at that level, you respect it by coming prepared, asking better questions and doing the work.”
Then came Hudaco where Phylla says she extended mentorship beyond colleagues to students and interns. “I would have touch sessions with them and having those children constantly sending invoices or mails from varsity was quite intensive. I realised that they just needed a person to constantly tell them they matter.”
She guided children of employees to degrees in fields from law to IT infrastructure, ensuring opportunities translated into long-term growth.
This mindset followed her into every leadership role that came after, including her current position as HR and transformation executive at e4 Strategic, where she leads with a philosophy shaped by years of stretching and being stretched. Today, she also mentors others while staying humble enough to learn herself, creating circles of growth.
Taking a chance on others
“I recently had a conversation about employee insights that feed into our HR strategies. As an HR professional, when four employees come forward requesting the same thing, you act. You listen, advocate and implement. For example, mentoring for e4 2026 will be introduced in 2026 directly as a result of insights from the engagement survey.”
“That’s HR,” she continues. “You hold space for the people, and the organisation. You’re the bridge. And when you’ve had good mentors, you never forget how to help others cross it too. I know what it feels like when someone takes a chance on you. That’s why I also try to see people for who they can be, not just who they are in the moment, so I push people, but I also support them. I want them to feel stretched, not strangled. Technical skills get you in the door, but relationships and self-awareness keep you in the room.”
“Mentorship is the wind beneath your wings. When you find the right person, it gives you direction, courage and perspective. But you still have to do the work. It’s not going to happen by osmosis. You learn, you grow and you lift those around you. That’s what leadership is about.”
Outside the demands of transforming and mentoring, Phylla reads and is drawn to stories that explore how people think, decide and influence. She cherishes quiet reflective moments and deep conversations. Family and faith anchor her, and she gravitates towards spaces that allow her to exhale and be fully herself. She defines these practices as not just hobbies, but as the wells that refill her capacity to lead.
“Every leader who poured into me changed how I saw myself. My story is really a story of people who saw me,” she says. “So I try, every day, to see others too.”
