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The ranks of local black chartered accountants (CAs) this month moved closer to exceeding the 10 000 mark for the first time as the results of the latest final chartered accountant exams were released.
The number of black chartered accountants increased by 615%, from 1 352 in January 2002 to 9 674 at the end of last month.
Over the 14-year period, the total number of local chartered accountants more than doubled, to nearly 40 000.
Karin Iten, an SA Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) project manager for marketing, said it was difficult to speculate about the reason for the growth in the number of local chartered accountants over the past 14 years.
“What is apparent is that there is still a critical shortage of skilled accountants at all levels across the economy.
“The latest Talent Shortage Survey for South Africa shows that accounting and finance staff are among the top 10 positions that employers in South Africa are having difficulty filling,” said Iten.
A total of 2 396 candidates who wrote the Saica assessment of professional competence passed – 1 286 of whom were black.
Of all the chartered accountants in the country, black accountants now make up nearly a quarter of the total, up from 6.8% in January 2002, which is the month from which Saica has kept an accurate breakdown of the racial composition of its membership.
The president of the Association of Black Accountants of SA (Abasa), Gugu Sigasa, said that over the past 10 years, there had been a significant growth in the profession and an improvement in the demographics of the members of the chartered accountancy profession.
“As recently as 2002, African and coloured members made up less than 2% of the total membership base of chartered accountants.
“The latest membership statistics indicate that the African and coloured candidates make up just 13% of the registered members [as recorded in February].
“It is therefore crucial that Abasa and the profession at large remain committed to efforts aimed at increasing the number of African and coloured candidates entering the profession,” said Sigasa.
The increase in the number of black accountants is partly due to the establishment of the Thuthuka Education Upliftment Fund and the Thuthuka Bursary Fund, which was set up in 2002. Thuthuka is a Zulu word that means “to develop”. The Thuthuka Bursary Fund is solely available to African and coloured students.
Iten said that, since 2002, the Thuthuka scheme had supported 3 000 students.
Of these students, Iten said, 251 had qualified as chartered accountants, 618 had entered the chartered accountancy training programme, more than 600 had completed a bachelor of commerce honours degree and 800 had obtained their bachelor of commerce degree.
Many of the remaining 731 students were still studying towards a bachelor of accounting degree, said Iten.
Since January 2002, the number of female accountants increased by 324%, from 3 254 to 13 783, while the number of male accountants rose by 57% over the same period, to 26 200.
The portion of female accountants has increased from 16.3% in January 2002 to 34.5% in February.
“Companies are recognising the fact that women, particularly black women, remain underrepresented in the profession.
“Yet this is slowly changing due to transformation projects such as Thuthuka, organisations such as the African Women Chartered Accountants’ forum, as well as the broad-based BEE code,” said Iten.
The number of accountants with disabilities has risen from 48 in December 2004, when Saica started tracking this aspect, to 158 in February.
Iten was unable to say how much had been spent on the Thuthuka programme since 2002.
