Deputy Minister Buti Manamela: KwaZulu-Natal Association for advancement of Black Accountants of Southern Africa’s Annual gala dinner

Keynote address by the Deputy Minister in The Presidency, Mr Buti Manamela, on the occasion of the KwaZulu-Natal Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants of Southern Africa’s Annual gala dinner

Programme Director,
Mr Mbusiswa Ngcobo: Regional Chairperson of ABASA,
Distinguished guests,
New accounting graduates,
Ladies and gentlemen. 

Sanibonani, good evening!

Thank you for inviting me to deliver this keynote address. I would like to congratulate those who have completed their accountingqualifications by obtaining the widely sought after Bachelor of Commerce degrees and Chartered Accountant (CA) certificates. Well-done! 

The accounting field is one of the most critical professional areas in the world, since accountants play a pivotal role in ensuring that organisations: 

  • Understand the value of sound financial management;
  • Put in place controls to enhance corporate governance;
  • Manage their internal and external risks;
  • Comply to regulations, norms and codes; and 
  • Maintain ethical conduct in the management of all organisational resources, among other critical areas.  

Our country needs more qualified financial executives, auditors and other specialised professionals with an accounting background. I really wish you all the best in your future endeavours in the world of work and lifelong learning. Now that you have completed your academic qualifications, we welcome you to the ‘University of Life’. 

In the ‘University of Life’ nobody will award you with certificates for your achievements, but you will be highly rewarded both with wisdom and a keen sense of pride in making a difference in society.

Ladies and gentlemen

South Africa is facing numerous challenges that require thinking out of the box and finding lasting solutions, particularly in relation to economic growth, inequality and unemployment as per the National Development Plan. As you all know, the main root cause of the current economic challenge is the global financial meltdown that peaked in 2008 and pushed most of our countries into various levels of recession. While some countries in the world, like South Africa, did recover slightly, other economies are still deep in the quagmire of the global downturn.

Many questions have been asked about what went wrong and how we could have avoided this problem. I understand that in the academic world some intellectuals started questioning the usefulness of economic and financial theories and frameworks that informed the design of our global financial systems.

In fact, in some of the largest corporations that were among the first to experience real collapse in North America, there is ample evidence regarding the unethical financial conduct and other bad financial management practices that could have been avoided, among other things. The consequences are dire, since the lack of economic growth results in the loss of jobs and related adverse implications for socio-economic development. People are plunged into poverty and hunger and their livelihoods compromised in many levels. 

As you enter the world of work, you should be alert to the critical value proposition that your financial skills bring to the market. 

Your skills are needed to ensure that organisations are well managed and also contribute to better management of the country-level and global-level financial systems. We need financial strategists, problem solvers, and activists who will turn around situations where they work and make a difference to our society at large. We also need you to unleash your entrepreneurial skills, to start innovating and contributing to job creation and the rebuilding of the economy. 

It is, however, not all doom and gloom; South Africa has improved its score in the World Economic Forum’s World Competitiveness Index to 49th out of 140 countries. You will be delighted to know that we remain in position one in terms of the ‘strength of our auditing and reporting standards’, which testifies to the high esteem and regard accorded to the work of our accountants and auditors worldwide.

Furthermore, evidence tells us that despite the current slow pace of economic growth, there are sectors of our economy that remain resilient and growing. Economic activity in finance, real estate and business services sectors reflected a positive growth of 1.9% in the last quarter of 2015.

Similarly, industries in the wholesale, retail, motor trade, catering and accommodation sectors reflected a positive growth of 2.8%. While these sectors also perform relatively well in employment, it is quite discouraging that there are comparatively lower proportions of Black Africans employed in the high skills levels in these sectors. 

At 26.7%, South Africa’s unemployment rate has worsened and the data also indicates that most of the unemployed are young people between the ages of 18 to 35 years. It is notable that young people who do not have a matric certificate are most likely to be unemployed. These constitute 57% of the unemployed youth over the past five years. 

While government is putting in place a range of measures to address the unemployment challenge as per the NDP and the new National Youth Policy 2020, it remains an unambiguous truth that if young people do not go to school to obtain necessary qualifications they are reducing their chances of getting decent jobs and contributing meaningfully to the development of our country, as well as betterment of their own lives. Among the employed Black Africans, about half do not have matric certificates, thus putting them in a vulnerable state of affairs in terms of long-term job security. 

We all need to do something about the poor levels of education within our communities. We need to move beyond just basic literacy, which is the ability to read and write, to ensuring that our people get substantive training that will provide them with the right skills needed by the economy. 

Government’s investment in Technical and Vocational Training Colleges, among other initiatives, seeks to find alternative routes for those people who might not have the requisite capabilities and resources to pursue university academic training.

I hope and believe that you as professional accountants will share your skills with those people in areas like numeracy, basics of accounting and finance in order for them to manage their own lives and businesses better. This is also an area for consideration by professional bodies like the Advancement of Black Accountants in Southern Africa (ABASA), as I understand that it has quite a good portfolio of community outreach projects.

As you are aware, employment is not just about getting a job from another person, but it includes self-employment, which is a strong ingredient for entrepreneurship, innovation and economic development. It is encouraging that in 2014 there were 2 million entrepreneurs among the employed, and 543 000 of those were young entrepreneurs. 

Accountants are people who are well trained in managing finances as a vital aspect of companies and organisations. I encourage you to consider joining those ranks of young entrepreneurs by starting your own businesses that could in time grow to be among the large enterprises and audit firms that most of you aspire to work for. Fortunately in our country you are not short of Black role models who have started their own successful enterprises in the field of finance and auditing.  

The National Youth Development Agency (NYDA), Department of Small Business Development, and economic sector departments in all spheres of government do have support programmes for people who would like to start their own small businesses. Knock at the doors of your local offices of the NYDA, visit the relevant government websites and approach established businesses for internship and mentorship opportunities. 

Join professional associations like ABASA so as to get networking opportunities that will give you new ideas and contacts that could enhance your career opportunities. As the saying goes, dream big and start small.

I would also like to encourage large audit firms, banks and other companies present here in KwaZulu-Natal to take it upon themselves to support the accounting professionals. They need to attract more new entrants into this field and also enhance opportunities of those who have recently qualified to grow in this career path. Most importantly, businesses have to acknowledge the legacy and burden of the Apartheid past and actively implement programmes to increase the pool of qualified, experienced and senior Black Chartered Accountants. 

The Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) programme is not a marketing ploy to get government tenders, but a serious strategic intervention to redress inequalities in the workplace, transform our economy and ensure that the playing field is levelled in deed among the various race groups in our country. It is critical that Black Africans, Indians and Coloured people do not remain marginalised because of the colour of their skin. 

I also humbly urge business leaders to find other inventive ways of championing Black Economic Empowerment through innovative ways of increasing management, ownership and control of enterprises by women, youth, people with disabilities and those living in rural areas. They should invest in co-operatives, skills development programmes and community-based business initiatives. 

Both Government and the private sector have a role to play in ensuring that young graduates like the accountants that we are welcoming today, are provided with opportunities to grow and contribute meaningfully to our economic growth and socio-economic development. By 2030, we should all aim to reach our NDP goal of a society that has successfully addressed the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment. 

Lastly, but not least, let me congratulate ABASA for celebrating its 30th Anniversary! The work of implementing practical programmes to champion participation of Black people in the accounting profession that you are doing, is highly appreciated. The number of Black accountants is growing, and there is still more to be achieved in this regard. Your efforts bring hope to our nation and the province of KwaZulu-Natal. 

I thank you all for your attention!

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