Johannesburg - The higher education department will invest
over R84m in Walter Sisulu University's (WSU) accounting department, Minister
Blade Nzimande said on Friday.
"In an environment where we have a shortage of over 5
000 chartered accountants (CA), and the public sector has a vacancy rate of
over 40% in financial fields, government has no option but to invest in these
kinds of interventions," Nzimande said in a speech prepared for delivery.
The investment would be made through the national skills
fund over the next four years. He was speaking at the announcement of the
WSU-Saica accountancy re-accreditation programme in Mthatha.
The investment would ensure that WSU received an SA
Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) accreditation. This would enable the
university to offer the BCom (accounting) degree, while maintaining teaching
and learning standards.
Saica would provide administrative support, and the
University of Cape Town academic help to ensure WSU was re-accredited for the
qualification.
"It is even more exciting that this transformative
programme is being launched at one of our rural universities, because there is
a real need to reach more rural learners than the currently accredited
universities can reach, as that will greatly improve the number of African CAs,
which currently stands at just under 2500."
Of the country's 34 418 CAs, 1100 were black women and 1 339 black men; 468 were coloured women and 478 coloured men; 1 347 Indian women and 1 936 Indian men; and 7 768 were white women and 19 852 white men. A total of 130 were had not been classified.
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