Starting out From a very young age my dream was to become a teacher. Then, in high school I wanted to become a medical doctor. My career guidance teacher at Sand du Plessis Hoërskool in Bloemfontein, Mr Naude, suggested at the time that I should keep my options open by taking accounting as my fourth…
The accounting profession has long been perceived as a profession for men in grey suits. But this is a professional stereotype that is fast changing, and rightly so. Women CAN make it in this “cut-throat” profession. The beauty about it all is that we do not have to be replicas of men; we just have…
Zarina was the first black woman in SA to hold the position of a partner at Ernst & Young, and the first black woman to be executive director of Absa Private Bank, in this country. She is currently Vice-chairman of Absa Retail Bank. he sub-prime lending crisis is having a ripple effect all over the…
O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint, agricolas Oh, blessed beyond all bliss, the farmers – did they but know their happiness. This was Virgil, apparently expressing a romantic view of bucolic life. To be fair, the farmers he had in mind were not perceived as blessed because of the nature of their work…
Dit is wel so dat die ekonomie sterk groeiankers het in die landbou, mynbou en die konstruksiebedryf wat baat vind by die besteding op infrastruktuur deur die openbare sektor. Dit ondersteun die ekonomiese groei en is ‘n belangrike stut in moeilike tye soos die huidige. Dit beteken egter nie dat sulke groeisektore onder alle omstandighede…
One of South Africa’s tangible business challenges today is retaining scarce, “sought after” talent, especially in Professional Service Firms (PSFs). This is supported by an article, published in the January issue of the Harvard Business Review (HBR), in which the authors argue that today’s PSFs are so busy making money that they have lost the…
ll companies are statutorily required to grant employees the right to take leave in one form or another. IAS 19 – Employee Benefits requires companies to recognise a liability for “compensated absences” if various requirements are met. The purpose of this article is to examine the accounting requirements for providing for leave pay under IFRSs…
In terms of amendments to the Copyright Act and the Performers’ Protection Act, music users such as broadcasters, restaurants, sport stadiums, malls, gyms, hairdressers, retail outlets etc, may not broadcast, diffuse and/or communicate to the public any CDs, cassettes and other sound recording carriers, without payment of a royalty to the copyright owner of the…
Finance functions face important choices about where to place focus. At a time when businesses want their CFOs to become actively engaged in the strategic direction of the business – participating in strategy development, leading M&A activity and providing leading indicators for predicting business performance – CFOs themselves believe that they are still far too distracted…
The Companies Bill is extremely topical and once you delve into it you realise that you cannot deal with all the interesting stuff but rather focus on one bit at a time. In this article, the author discusses the Bill and the different roles of some of the stakeholders. On 27 June 2008 the Companies…