Sanchia Temkin
5 August 2008
Johannesburg — LARGE-scale intervention is required to increase the number of black chartered accountants, particularly women, in SA, in the light of the country's skills crisis, according to the Chartered Accountancy Charter Council.
The council is calling on SA's chartered accountants to support broad-based black economic empowerment.
The council's chairwoman, Tsakani Matshazi, said yesterday the benefits that would flow from a successful black economic empowerment programme were immeasurable and would accrue to everyone.
Since 1976, only 973 blacks had completed the requirements to register as chartered accountants; a number that compares unfavourably with the total of 27047.
This was the distortion that the charter, which was released by the accountancy profession last year, aimed to rectify.
A 12-member charter council had been formed to apply the charter with retrospective effect from January 1 last year to the end of 2016.
The charter had been drafted to meet the specific needs of the profession, simultaneously laying down empowerment weightings that resembled the national empowerment ratings and the government's codes of good practice.
Matshazi said that while progress had not been as brisk as the council members would have liked, they should not lose sight of the many positive transformation dynamics already in progress.
For instance, the intake at South African universities shows that whites are no longer the majority of prospective chartered accountants and that the rate of black accountants was climbing steeply.
The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants' Thutuka transformation initiative continued to play a role in increasing the number of black chartered accountants.
More women than men were passing the qualifying examination.
The pipeline was looking increasingly transformed, with each race group moving identifiably towards reflecting the country 's demographics.
From 2003 the number of black chartered accountants had grown 141% compared with the 24% increase in the total number of chartered accountants over the same period.
The number of women chartered accountants had risen 65% during the past five years.
Matshazi said that the charter council was confident that widespread support of the charter by the profession would accelerate these encouraging trends.
She said that the charter applied to all chartered accountants, not just those in public practice. It also recognised the role academics played in the profession.
Matshazi said that chartered accountants in small firms should implement the charter in a way that worked best for them.
The charter created opportunities for accountants in black-owned firms to operate in competitive terrains.
"It aims to promote economic growth and transformation to enable meaningful participation of black people," Matshazi said.
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