As of today, Cathy Smith will serve as SAP Africa's MD for the continent, the company has announced.

SAP Africa says Cathy brings more than 25 years of leadership and technology experience to the role and is the first female leader of SAP Africa.

Steve Tzikakis, Regional President for EMEA South at SAP, described Cathy as an experienced and inspirational leader who joins the business at an exciting time in the continent's history.

"Africa is on the cusp of exponential growth and development enabled by digital technologies. As one of the foremost experts in driving digital transformation on the continent, Cathy is imminently suited to leading our Africa operations. We have great confidence in her ability to realise our innovation vision across our customer base."

Smith joins SAP from Cisco, where she was Managing Director for Sub-Saharan Africa, leading the development and execution of the company's go-to-market sales and digital transformation strategies for the region.

Prior to that, she spent 23 years at IBM in a variety of leadership roles. As a fellow of the African Leadership Initiative, Cathy is also committed to developing the next generation of value-based African leaders, capable of guiding and leading their countries, as they balance the demands of globalisation with local visions of a sustainable society.

"Augmenting a culture of leadership, high performance and accountability, both internally and externally, is the core of Cathy's mandate. This appointment also reaffirms SAP's commitment to empowering women in leadership and is in line with the company's dedication to furthering South Africa's employment equity and transformation agenda," adds Steve.

She takes over from Claas Kuehnemann, who took on the role of acting Managing Director for SAP Africa over the past eight months and who now assumes a new leadership position with SAP in Switzerland. S

AP says Claas will remain closely allied with SAP Africa as he will continue to serve as a non-executive director on the SAP South Africa board.

Smith's appointment comes days after the German software maker confirmed that it found compliance breaches and "indications of misconduct" in US$50 million (R595 million) worth of public sector deals in South Africa involving the Guptas, friends of former president Jacob Zuma accused of corruption.

Outlining the findings of an external legal review of five software deals with state-run electricity firm Eskom and rail-freight company Transnet, SAP said three executives suspended last year had resigned without severance pay.

Adaire Fox-Martin SAP board member said SAP will do better going forward in a statement on the reviews findings.

"The investigation has confirmed that even strong compliance systems are vulnerable and therefore require eternal vigilance. While we cannot turn back the clock, we can promise to do better."