BuaNews (Tshwane)
Thapelo Sakoana
24 August 2007
Cape Town — The shortage of chartered accountants (CAs) in the Western Cape poses a threat to growth expectations in the province, says Education MEC Cameron Dugmore.
Addressing the 22nd Annual Convention of the Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants of Southern Africa on Thursday, Mr Dugmore said they were concerned about this situation.
"Our own provincial Micro Economic analysis confirms that there is a dire shortage of engineers, chartered accountants, financial and technical skills that pose a serious threat to growth expectations in this province," he said.
The MEC said figures provided to his office by industry leaders revealed that there are 26 389 CAs in South Africa, of which 3 262 are black - consisting of African, Coloured and Indian.
Of these, he added, 6 389 were women, comprising 24 percent to the total number of CAs in the country.
"Specifically, 299 are African women, 645 Indian and 209 coloured," he explained. However, he said there were also 5 225 white women CAs and 17 866 white males.
"The low female representation also has a lot to do with perceptions at school level, where female learners are not encouraged to study mathematics, science, accountancy or technology related subjects," said the MEC. According to the Human Science Research Council, the rapid increase in the demand for CAs was extending beyond the financial services industry. Employers in various sectors have realised that high level skills of CAs could be used in a diverse range of functions including strategic planning and monitoring of productivity.
MEC Dugmore said this realisation has contributed to chartered accounting being classified as a super-growth occupation. Given the shortage of such professionals, Mr Dugmore said his department had initiated several interventions to increase the mathematical intellectual capital.
As part of these interventions, the number of Dinaledi schools has been expanded to 45 in a quest to improve the performance of high school learners in maths, science and technology.
"In addition, the department has established eight Maths, Science and Technology Focus Schools in historically disadvantaged communities," he said. The department continues to provide mathematics, science and technology kits, supported by teaching materials and lesson plans for teachers across all the grades in all schools. The number of mathematics and science bursaries for student teachers has increased progressively in recent years to 96 this year. More than 100 schools are participating in the department's Khanya's Maths Schools Project, which is using technology to support teaching and learning in mathematics.
"Two interventions, which we are particularly proud of, are the two special schools, focusing on mathematics, science and technology, mainly for learners from disadvantaged backgrounds," MEC Dugmore said.
These are the Centre of Science and Technology in Khayelitsha and the Cape Academy of Mathematics, Science and Technology in Constantia, which achieved excellent matric results in 2006. "Our Cape Academy's first cohort of matrics (of 2006) has produced no less than eight students from historically disadvantaged backgrounds, who have enrolled as chartered accountants or in other financial services related courses," the MEC said.
One of the students, he said, has left Thursday morning to study financial mathematics at the Wesley College in the United States of America.
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