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Silas Mhembere

@silasmhembere

Information security leader at Zinjiva Consulting advising regulated clients, after achieving zero major findings across PCI DSS audits at Yoco.

South Africa

Message

At Zinjiva Consulting, I deliver CISO-as-a-service engagements for clients including Revenue Services Lesotho, translating cyber risk into actionable governance reporting. I’ve designed governance frameworks aligned to ISO/IEC 27001, NIST CSF, and COBIT 2019, and authored an AI Management Policy aligned to ISO/IEC 42001:2023.

At Frontline Managed Services, I functioned as de facto CISO, led a distributed four-person security team, and reported security posture to the C-suite. I achieved and maintained ISO 27001, Cyber Essentials, and POPIA compliance with zero major findings across external audits, and reduced compliance audit failures by 40%.

At Yoco Technologies, I led PCI DSS compliance for payment environments, maintaining zero major findings across external audits. Earlier, as an Information Security Consultant, I managed firewall environments and provided security consulting to financial services, government, and infrastructure clients.

Experience

Work history, roles, and key accomplishments

Current

Independent vCISO Consultant

Current

Zinjiva Consulting

Jan 2026 - Present (10 months)

Multi-client CISO-as-a-service practice spanning financial services, infrastructure, and government sectors across South Africa and the region. Designed and implemented IT governance frameworks aligned to ISO/IEC 27001, NIST CSF, and COBIT 2019.

ISO 27001 NIST CSF COBIT2019 ISO 42001 TOGAF Risk Assessment Governance CISO as a Service (CISO on Demand)

Senior Security Manager

Frontline Managed Services

Jan 2023 - Dec 2025 (2 years 11 months)

Functioned as de facto CISO for a US-based managed services organisation; defined enterprise security strategy, led a distributed 4-person security team, and reported security posture directly to the C-suite. Achieved zero major findings across all external audits.

ISO 27001 Cyber Essentials POPIA Incident Response DLP SIEM AWS Azure SSO SCIM Security Awareness

Security GRC Officer

Yoco Technologies

Jan 2020 - Dec 2022 (2 years 11 months)

Led the security governance, risk, and compliance programme for a high-growth FinTech startup processing card-present and card-not-present payment transactions at scale. Achieved zero major findings in PCI DSS audits and embedded DevSecOps practices.

PCI DSS DevSecOps CI CD MITRE ATT&CK WSO2 Identity Server Google Workspace MDM Risk Register KYC

Information Security Consultant

IT Naledi

Jan 2017 - Dec 2020 (3 years 11 months)

Delivered security consulting services to enterprise clients in financial services, government, and infrastructure sectors, focusing on ISMS implementation, network security architecture, and third-party risk. Managed 50+ Palo Alto and FortiGate firewalls.

Palo Alto FortiGate Nessus Vulnerability Assessment Network Security Firewall Management Third Party Risk