So much has been said after the sad passing of Imran Vanker of IRBA.

As I could not attend his funeral, I want to share my experience of Imran as a tribute to him.  

In 1999, I was a partner in a firm called KMMT which merged with KPMG in that year. At KPMG I heard a lot about a superstar manager in the Pietermaritzburg office. I got to meet Imran soon after the merger and he didn’t disappoint his superstar billing. It wasn’t his technical knowledge that impressed me; it was his ability to hold conversations on almost any topic.

Pretty soon after the merger, the partners in the Pietermaritzburg office, proposed that I, as managing partner of the region, sponsor Imran to the assessment centre for partner admission. I did the proposal. There was some concern from the national partnership policy committee about whether there was a business case for another partner in the smallest office in KPMG.

They nevertheless went ahead.

At the assessment centre, doubts about Imran's credentials were wiped out as Imran put on a superb performance. He scored the highest mark in that cohort and the highest most people on that committee could remember of all time. He was brilliant.  

Just like Richard Gere swept Debra Winger off her feet at the end of the 1982 move “An Officer and a Gentleman” Imran swept the KPMG Board of its feet.

Whether there existed a business case or not, the committee agreed that this was a partner we needed to have. He was admitted as a partner thereafter.

Not long after, the Auditor General asked KPMG to provide a partner on secondment. We decided that Imran was our man. Before the secondment was over, Imran asked to see me.

He said to me that he didn’t think that he would fit back into KPMG, and that he was asked by the Auditor general if he would accept a secondment to the United Nations audit team. It meant he had to leave KPMG. I felt that something like this would open his world up and I advised him to take the opportunity as it may never appear again.

He did, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Wherever he worked he covered himself in glory and conducted himself as a true gentleman.

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On his return to South Africa, he stayed in touch, and when I visited Johannesburg, he would make a point of seeing me or taking me out for dinner or to his home, where his wonderful wife Ayesha would entertain us. He called me every year on my birthday, including this October 2024. He always called me Uncle Suresh.

He was a devout Muslim and a dedicated family man.

We have lost a truly remarkable individual who still had a lot give the world. Ayesha, Adam and the rest of the Vanker family, my heart bleeds for you.  

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