 Kimi Makwetu
Deputy Auditor General
Auditor General South Africa (AGSA)
Interview done in December 2009 |
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BRIEF BACKGROUND QUESTIONS:
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1. When did you qualify as a CA(SA)?
1999
2. How did you qualify as a CA(SA)? (Where did you study, how did you study (full-time / part-time?), where did you do your articles?
A combination of full and part-time. Articles at Deloitte
3. What types of jobs/roles have you done in your career?
Mainly financial management and auditing
4. What does your current role entail?
Leading people and following others as the Deputy Auditor-General.
Q 1: As a CA(SA) you are professional, what does life-long learning mean to you?
A:
It means keeping informed.
Q 2: How has CPD/life-long learning contributed to your career progression?
A:
Immensely. It gave me the opportunity to understand the basis for certain decisions and for why certain things are priorities. E.g. why is talent sourcing a critical strategic focus of a service oriented firm.
Q 3: What activities do you do or have you done that contribute to your life-long learning and help you to stay ahead and maintain your competitive edge as a CA(SA)?
Reading and getting involved in debates and presenting at public forums.
Q 4: How important is it that the public is made aware of the life-long learning status of a CA(SA), especially those who utilise services of a CA(SA)?
A:
It is very important to entrench the level of trust that is associated with the type of work that a CA(SA) does.
Q 5: What advice would you give to up and coming CAs(SA) regarding life-long learning and continuing professional development?
They must regard their CA(SA) qualification as just an entry into a wider world of vast and complex realities. It is about sharpening the qualification itself for the rest of your life.
Q 6: The SAICA CPD policy requires that you both do and record your CPD, you have obviously committed to CPD/life-long learning as demonstrated in your answers above, what steps do you take to record your CPD as outlined in the policy?
A:
A combination of entering them on the website and the ever-present scramble for time to collect evidence.
Q 7: Do you believe that the SAICA CPD policy upholds your status as a CA(SA)?
A: Yes it does.
Q 8: What tips can you give to other CAs(SA) regarding CPD?
A:
They must adopt the same attitude that they adopted when they were first year trainee accountants i.e. learn and record.
Q 9: What improvements do you think SAICA can make around CPD? (i.e promoting life-long learning, providing access to CPD opportunities, benchmarking and monitoring CPD compliance?
A:
Identifying the pool of CA(SA)s across the country and get them to share the benefits that they sourced from adhering to lifelong learning and how it contributed to their successes.