The AUGUST Issue Comments
Dear Accountancy SA
Well done on a great August issue! I didn’t know we had so many beautiful women in the profession! Keep up the good work.
Warm regards, Chris van der Merwe
Dear Editor
It is with delight that I opened my Accountancy SA magazine of August. As a female Chartered Accountant we are often seen as boring and “not so pretty”. And the profession is normally also seen as male dominated.
In this issue – you really celebrated women and showed that they don’t only have brains, but beauty. Even though I’m a career driven women and a leader in my industry, I’m still a woman and I enjoy the finer things in life. Thank you for showing us that in this issue.
Joan van Niekerk
The Editor
The August edition of Accountancy SA is an embarrassment to me as a professional woman. A colleague who walked into my office saw the magazine at a distance and could not believe that I had a You magazine on my desk.
The magazine could have celebrated women as chartered accountants and professionals and not dressed them up like matriculants at a matric dance.
Each woman could have been photographed at her desk and been asked to write a short article on some issue of importance to the profession that she has encountered. Or an article could have been included on the role of women in the profession.
Yours sincerely, Professor E. Stack, Rhodes University
Dear Accountancy SA team
Thank you for your passion and dedication to uplifting the brand of professionals in South Africa. Through the work you have done with the August magazine, in specific, I can say for myself – that it inspires me even more to work at getting my message across to more people.
Knowing that my work is being recognised in this way is a great source of inspiration. The idea of having an “inspiring women as leaders” article is just what the profession needs to rejuvenate passion to excellence.
Well done on your achievements and I wish you well with your future editions of Accountancy SA.
Regards, Dineshrie Pillay, Neospective Consulting
Dear Gerinda
Congratulations on the Transformation articles which appeared in the August Accountancy SA magazine.
These were a breath of fresh air and there appears to be a renewed effort to realistically and seriously address problems in transformation. One of the important points made by Dr Jerry Gale was the need to reverse the effects of apartheid and this suggests that it is not only about numbers.
One of the effects was the inhumanity to which it gave rise, and we appear thus far to have been unable to address this problem. We as blacks continue to experience the inhumanity (some to a greater extent than others) at the hands of those who were the beneficiaries under apartheid.
Further compliments Gerinda on the article in this month’s transformation article by Kevin Phillips. As he indicates by singling out a group of women for their accomplishments serves to perpetuate the false perception that they are inferior. In the same way by continuing to label people in terms of a derogatory word “coloured” we perpetuate the idea of superior and inferior people.
Yours sincerely – Reginald Peterson
The Southern Region Sustainability Forum’s Input Into The IIRC
A consultation draft of the international integrated reporting (IR) framework was put
forward for comment by the IIRC (International Integrated Reporting Council). Whilst
SAICA prepared their response to the draft, the Southern Region Sustainability Forum
took it upon themselves to provide an additional submission to the IIRC.
Our three key messages to the IIRC were along the following lines:
• The framework starts out well with a holistic focus that incorporates sustainability thinking. However, the further into the framework you go, the less reference one sees to sustainability, which was a pity.
• The focus on financial capital providers was too strong throughout the document. More reference should be made and cognisance given to the providers of the other forms of capital.
• We recommended that frameworks be developed that assist in identifying the material issues by country and by sector within each country. This would enable organisations to report on what is most relevant to their country of operation, their sector and finally their own specific company.
This would aid both comparability and completeness of integrated reports.
Should you like to find out more about the Forum’s submission, please feel free to
contact us.
