LIFESTYLE: Obituary

Richard Gray Cottrell Auditing and Accounting Stalwart passes on. It is with deep sadness that I came to learn of the passing of Rick Cottrell on 5 November 2012. He was 76. My memories of Rick are many and varied. I first met him during my Coopers & Lybrand days and it was during his…

Special Feature: Accounting Software

Governing IT through Strategic Alignment Many businesses find themselves stuck in the technology gap: what company boards expect from IT governance is often far removed from what IT departments comprehend as the business’s needs. Boards cannot rely on IT to understand their business needs and to bridge the technology gap, but must use business strategy…

LIFESTYLE: Travel

A personal touch EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO LIVE A STYLISH LIFE. For your next trip to Durban opt to stay at the St James on Venice Luxury Boutique Hotel. There is an old proverb that says ‘it is a sin against hospitality to open your doors and darken your countenance’. And nowhere is this taken…

LIFESTYLE: A personal touch

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO LIVE A STYLISH LIFE For your next trip to Durban opt to stay at the St James on Venice Luxury Boutique Hotel. There is an old proverb that says ‘it is a sin against hospitality to open your doors and darken your countenance’. And nowhere is this taken more to heart…

In Support of Sound Accounting Practices

The fascinating story of South Africa’s first deaf Chartered Accountant. She refused to let her deafness get in the way of her dreams, amitions and philosophies. The main tenet behind Yann Martel’s bestseller, Life of Pi, is that one needs adversity in order to enable one to survive. Readers were in awe of how the…

February 2013

Do recent socio-political and economic developments in South Africa suggest that, even though we’ve made some progress since achieving democracy in 1994, we’re actually going backwards? This is the question asked by The Economist, in its ‘Over the rainbow’ article (20 October 2012 edition). “On 26 June 1955 around 3000 people gathered in a dusty…

Special Feature: SPECIAL REPORT ECONOMY

Africa’s Economic Evolution Many pathways, some of them dead ends, weaved Africa’s economic story – a story of investment, unlocked natural capital, complex adaptive process and competitive struggle for survival, with modest accumulation. What we are left with is today’s mix of medieval-with-modern economic modes. Underperformance is the leitmotif of contemporary state-dominated economies. Nonetheless, Africa…