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Industry sources have predicted that the charter will worsen the scramble for black chartered accountants (CAs), which are a rare human resource.
In all likelihood, the spike in the demand for black CAs will put upward pressure on their salaries and perks, particularly those that are highly experienced.
Victor Sekese, the chief executive of black-owned accounting firm SizweNtsaluba, says: "There is no better time to be a black CA than now. We experience the scramble for black CAs every day. As soon as we produce, everyone comes and grabs.
"There'll be an upward pressure on the remuneration of black CAs, but I think it will be temporary. The upward pressure on salaries will also depend on how quickly we produce black CAs," he adds.
The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica), which represents 26 800 CAs across the country, agrees with Sekese's prediction.
The organisation's executive president, Ignatius Sehoole, says the shortage of black CAs would in future be offset by a large number of potential CAs who are coming up through the ranks.
Does not look impressive
"There could be that effect (scramble for black CAs). The scarcity of skills has already had an impact on the pricing of CAs. But the pipeline of CAs is growing and over time, it will fill in the gap in the market," says Sehoole.
However, the pipeline for black CAs does not look impressive at all. About 63% of the students who enrolled for the QEII qualifying board exams this year are white. Black Africans make up roughly 16% of the number, coloureds a meagre 5% and the remaining 16% is made up by Indians.
There is no guarantee that all the Africans and coloureds will qualify as CAs as they still have to sit for the board exams - a big hurdle that many fail to clear.
The racial composition of the accounting profession tells a story of an industry that has moved nowhere in terms of transformation.
Blacks and coloureds form about 5% of the 26 803 chartered accountancy population in this country.
Indians make up 7% of the sector and whites a staggering 88%. Many of the 912 black CAs have left the profession to pursue better paying jobs in commerce and industry.
Now industry insiders say the charter will force the accounting firms to match or better what corporates are paying as they seek to retain their talent and meet the charter targets.
Racial imbalance
After all, it is the accounting firms that train CAs.
A newly qualified CA can earn R400 000 a year while a CA with two-years working experience can fetch an annual package of between R600 000 and R700 000. A junior partner, a CA with six or eight years experience, earns anything from R1m upwards while a senior partner can earn between R4m and R5m a year.
Over and above their salaries, the partners are also given a share of the profits made by the accounting firms.
The empowerment charter has been designed to address the racial imbalance in the profession.
As a result, it has placed a big emphasis on skills development and employment equity by putting higher weightings, beyond what the BEE Codes of Good Practice prescribe.
In terms of the BEE scorecard, the charter calls for a 20% black ownership target by 2016, in line with the 20% guideline of the BEE codes. In terms of skills development, the profession has put a weighting of 20%, exceeding the prescribed 15% weighting.
Employment equity received a 20% weighting, well above the legislated 15% weighting. Employment equity and skills development gained higher weightings at the expense of preferential procurement, which received a weighting of 10%. The BEE codes prescribe a weighting of 20% for preferential procurement.
Double-edged sword
Although black-owned accounting firms welcome the empowerment charter, they also view it as a double-edged sword. They fear that the charter could take them back to pre-1994 era where they had to survive on small, less lucrative jobs. The charter could also allow the BEE-compliant Big Four firms Delloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, and KPMG to dominate the market at the expense of small black firms.
"The charter will take away the advantage we have always enjoyed, that of being black. The big firms will say "give us the tenders" because we are now BEE compliant.
"I think black firms will have to reinvent themselves to remain competitive in the market," says Sekese.
Zakhele Sithole, the chief executive of black firm Sithole Incorporated, fears the unintended consequences of the BEE charter.
"The charter will limit us from accessing big audit jobs because they will now go to big firms as was the case before 1994. Black firms have formed consortiums to get bigger jobs before, but this has really been a marriage of convenience than anything else," says Sithole.
Sehoole says he has no idea how the charter is going to affect market competition and black-owned firms.
"All I'm interested in is to use the charter as a platform to qualify more black CAs. In terms of competition and business models, the market will sort itself out," he says.
