Blade Nzimande, the General Secretary of the South African Communist Party, currently serves as Minister of Higher Education and Training in the Republic of South Africa.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
29 October 2009
It is a great honour for me to be part of this special occasion which honours the success of ABASA's Nkuhlu Subvention Fund and the accreditation of the University of Fort Hare by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA).
At the outset let me commend ABASA on the exceptional work it has been doing since its establishment 24 years ago to promote the professional interests of black people engaged in the accounting profession and to increase in the number of black chartered accountants in the country.
The transformation of the financial sector is a formidable challenge and essential to the broad efforts to transform the economy and our society. Latest statistics from SAICA reveal that we still have some distance to travel before we see black and previously disadvantaged people having meaningful representation in the accounting profession. These statistics reflect that black Africans make up only 4,8% of the total number of chartered accountants in the country, with women making up less than two percent.
Time and experience has shown that transformation is not a natural evolutionary process and requires a concerted effort and dedicated programmes to correct racial and gender imbalances. ABASA's President's Club, made up of past presidents and other senior members, stepped up to this challenge in 2005 by initiating the Nkhuhlu Subvention Fund (NSF) as a strategic intervention to increase in the number of black Chartered Accountants (CAs) and offer young black South Africans increased access in the field of commerce. It aimed to do this by assisting previously black universities, Fort Hare and Limpopo, to gain SAICA accreditation for their accounting programmes.
The lack of accreditation at these historically disadvantaged institutions limited access and advancement of black people in the accountancy profession. It resulted in their BComm graduates not being able to become Chartered Accountants and their qualifications not being recognised by prospective employers.
SAICA accreditation improves the employability of black BComm graduates from these universities, increases the number of CAs coming from disadvantaged communities, and enhances the marketability of the degrees even for those graduates who do not wish to follow the CA route.
The Nkhuhlu Subvention Fund project also aims to aid transformation by raising funds to enable qualified black CAs to go into academia. Salaries of lecturers are generally not competitive enough to measure up to salaries that CAs would ordinarily get offered outside academia. The funds raised are used to supplement the lecturers' salaries to bring them in line with what is on offer in the marketplace. This increases the number of black people that serve as academics, thereby transforming institutions of higher learning and providing students with much-needed role models.
Tonight we celebrate a significant achievement in our transformation journey with t he University of Fort Hare receiving accreditation from SAICA. Fort Hare's results for the final qualifying exams have been commendable, achieving a 64% pass rate in 2009 for auditing specialisation. This was above the national average of 60%.
ABASA's strategic relationships with sponsors including the Umsobomvu Youth Fund, the Nedbank Eyethu Trust, Nedbank Chairman's Fund, the Industrial Development Corporation, Auditor General and the national Department of Labour has led to an innovative approach to ensuring that more black students have a real chance at succeeding in a career that would otherwise have been beyond their reach. This project is evidence of how much can be achieved through smart partnerships to further the development goals of our country.
We hope that ABASA's continued intervention at the University of Limpopo will result in similar success in the institution's quest to gain SAICA accreditation. The Department of Higher Education and Training is committed to work with you and SAICA to emulate the success of the project at other universities which can benefit from this type of intervention. To this end, we are pleased to learn that ABASA has started discussions with the University of Zululand with a view to extending the programme at this institution.
Ladies and gentlemen, ABASA's intervention is one of a range of initiatives by professional organisations to invest in the development of human and institutional capacity, so as to increase our scarce and critical skills pool. This includes SAICA's own Thuthuka scheme to aid training in accounting. The challenge however remains to expose young people to a variety of career opportunities so that they could make informed decisions about the career paths they choose. Moreover, the labour market should work in sync with us so that we are made aware of where we are lacking in terms of skills shortages; the quality of our graduates and in meeting the imperatives of transformation of our society.
Funding for poor students to gain access to quality higher education remains a critical challenge for my department. We are eagerly awaiting a report from the Ministerial Committee which we set up to review the efficacy of the National Student Financial Aid Scheme. This report, due in December, will help give effect to Government's commitment to progressively introduce free education for the poor up to undergraduate level and will also be essential to the broad redress of racial imbalances in the economy.
It is commendable that ABASA chose universities in rural areas to run this project as young people in these areas and disadvantaged backgrounds face many obstacles aside from funding in pursuing specialised careers. It is apparent that part of the reason for low success rates for such students enrolling at higher education institutions is that they are at times academically and psychologically ill-prepared for the transition to the new environment. With a little support to overcome the culture shock (such as that provided by the Thuthuka programme), I am confident that more black and poor students would be graduating.
It is challenge to all of us how we provide and sustain such support to aid these young people to cope in the daunting new environment of higher education. Community and business support for foundation programmes, such as the Grounding Programme currently being piloted at Fort Hare, are crucial to supporting young people at a critical juncture of their lives.
Ladies and gentlemen, in order for transformation to permeate beyond BEE, business needs to lend a helping hand to open the corporate world to young graduates and novices. There are a number of ways to achieve this, including assisting higher learning institutions to raise capital for Chairs and mentorship programmes that can covert graduates into qualified professionals.
It is also my view, ladies and gentlemen, that the academic profession, particularly in commerce, is still largely untransformed and that too few black people are willing to impart their knowledge and skills to the next generation. Of great concern is the low level of participation and success of black students in particular fields of study like accounting, natural sciences, engineering and in research and postgraduate studies.
This is particularly important as we must urgently develop the next generation of academics and researchers. Therefore initiatives such as ABASA's Nkuhlu Subvention Fund which promotes the integration of black people into academia need to be applauded and replicated.
Our skills deficit and transformation challenges also require that we think outside the box in terms of how we optimally use our post-school system to produce entrants to the workplace. As you may know, our government and my department in particular is working towards an integrated education and training landscape with skills development as a central pillar of our job creation and human resource development programmes.
University degrees should therefore not be the only criteria to enter the business sector. It is essential that corporate South Africa unbolts its gates to graduates from universities of technology, colleges and other training institutions supported by Sectoral Education and Training Authority (SETA) so that we have a range and mix of knowledge and practical skills entering the workplace. The business sector also needs to be more responsive to our desperate requirement for workplace placements for students in FET colleges and Universities of Technology. Without a functional partnership with business in this regard, our goal to increase enrolment and throughput will not produce the desired results.
Ladies and gentlemen, this initiative by ABASA demonstrates the enormous benefit that can result from strategic intervention and smart partnerships between business and the education and training sector. ABASA's long term view to promote the professional interests of black people in the accounting profession and to cultivate a future generation of CAs takes black empowerment to a level beyond the superficial.
We encourage you to work with our universities to ensure that the programme is sustained and improves its success rate. The Department of Higher Education and Training looks forward to an active working relationship with you to develop critical and scarce skills and transforming our economy.
We also invite engagement and input on how to employ the resources of business and government strategically to promote racial and gender equity.
Once again, congratulations on the success of your project.
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Higher Education and Training
29 October 2009
Source: Department of Higher Education and Training
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