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The purpose of this paper is to examine how the actions of the accounting profession, the state, universities, and academics have inhibited the development of South African accounting research.

A multiple history approach using traditional archival material and oral history is used.

Since the late nineteenth-century, a network of human and non-human actors has ensured that accounting education in South Africa retained a technical focus. By prescribing and detailing the accounting syllabuses required for university accreditation, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) and its predecessors exercise direct control over accounting education. As a result, little appetite exists for a discipline based on academic enquiry or engagement with international scholars. While the SAICA claims to support accounting research, this support is conditional on its meeting the professional body’s particular view of scholarship.

The limitations associated with this research are that it focusses on one particular professional body in one jurisdiction. The South African situation provides a cautionary tale of how universities, particularly those in developing countries, should take care not to abdicate their responsibilities for the setting of syllabi or course content to professional bodies. Accounting academics, particularly those in a developing country currently experiencing major social, political, and economic problems, are in a prime position to engage in research that will benefit society as a whole.

Although actor network theory has been used in accounting research and in particular to explain accounting knowledge creation, the use of this particular theoretical lens to examine the construction of professional knowledge is limited. This study draws on Callon’s (1986) four moments to explain how various human actors including the accounting profession, the state, universities, and accounting academics, along with non-human actors such as accreditation, regulation, and transformation, have brought about South African academic disengagement with the discipline.

The severe shortage of black chartered accountants (CAs) in South Africa highlights the need for equity in the development of future accountants. However, despite the transformation initiatives that had already been introduced by then, at the end of 2001, black CAs were still grossly underrepresented in the membership of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA). Furthermore, black trainee accountants still experienced cultural and social alienation, hostility and mistrust in their ability, resulting in their not reaching their full potential. This article investigates the progress made in transforming the accountancy profession in South Africa since 2001. It surveyed the obstacles black trainee accountants still encounter, using a questionnaire that took into account issues identified from the literature reviewed. A number of recommendations are made on the basis of the findings. The results show that black accountants are still a minority in the accountancy profession. Black trainees currently believe that they receive very good training; however, they also believe it is more difficult to be a black trainee than a white trainee. Different cultural backgrounds, a lack in social skills and race‐based perceptions were identified as the key obstacles they currently encounter.

Changes in business environments have challenged the competencies (technical knowledge, skills and attitudes) of professional accountants. Accounting professions have responded by developing competency frameworks. In 2008, the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) issued a draft competency framework encapsulating a broad range of knowledge, skills and attributes. The objective of the study reported on here was to determine training officers’ perceptions of the knowledge and skills requirements of entry‐level trainee accountants. SAICA could consider the findings of this study in the finalisation of its competency framework. The study reveals that nearly three‐quarters of all the topics in the current prescribed SAICA syllabus are considered to make at least an important contribution to the knowledge requirements of entry‐level trainee accountants. Although more than half the management accounting topics prescribed in the SAICA syllabus are perceived as being only reasonably important, further statistical analysis revealed that TOPP (training outside public practice) training officers disagreed significantly with their TIPP (training inside public practice) counterparts on the importance of management accounting topics and perceived them to be at least important. Except for specialised topics, all other topics covering the remaining core subjects (Financial Accounting, Financial Management, Taxation and Auditing) were perceived to be important or even more than important by the respondents. The study demonstrates that there is a movement towards an expanded set of competencies beyond the technical knowledge typically taught to prospective CAs, and that there is evidence of a need for today’s entry‐level trainee accountants to receive training in communication, analytical, interpersonal and computer skills.

The purpose of this paper is to report on the reflective identity work of a white female chartered accountant, scholar and academic manager, regarding the intersectional transformations of gender and race as well as leadership within the South African accounting profession over four decades.

The theoretical lens of intersectionality is applied through an autoethnographic approach. Multiple layers of personal experiences and observations are interpreted through identity work of leadership provided and received. Autoethnographic data are substantiated and contextualised through the researchers’ sense-making, official and scholarly sources.

Sustainable transformation of the accounting profession requires a deepened understanding of the interconnections of the personal, structural and systemic areas within unique contexts. Leadership, as provided and received, must be included within the intersectional orientations. Intersectional orientations become then more significant for understanding progressive changes of the demographic profile of the accounting profession not only in South Africa but also in other countries. The transformation interventions aimed at affirming high-quality black African, coloured and female candidates to the South African accounting profession are founded on the principles of social justice. A sustained reframing of the demographic profile of a profession is possible through accelerated and well-funded collaborative transformation interventions enhancing intentional structural changes of the membership pipeline.

The possible limitations of this study lie in the contextual nature of the material and findings and the lens of the specific theory.

The understanding of the practice of interventions aiming at transforming the country-specific demographic profile of a scarce skills profession such as the accountancy profession.

The originality of this paper lies in the application of an intersectional theoretical lens that argues for leadership as a dimension alongside age, gender and race in an autoethnographic sense making of the transformation of the South African accounting profession.

Differential corporate reporting exists in one form or another in many countries and it is currently on the agenda of the International Accounting Standards Board’s (IASB’s). This article provides some background on this practice and, in particular, on the current position of the IASB and the accounting profession in South Africa with regard to differential corporate reporting. The article also reports on the results of a postal survey of South African Registered Accountants’ and Auditors’ views on the form that differential corporate reporting should take. It was found that there is some support for limited deviations from Generally Accepted Accounting Practice (GAAP), in agreement with DP 163 – Limited Purpose Financial Statements issued by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA).

There is increasing academic pressure on Departments of Accounting in South Africa whose academic programmes are accredited with the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA). The reason for this that the academic training of potential chartered accountants has long been their main academic focus, and they often fail to do justice to their real academic mission of scholarly activity in accounting (the pursuit of science as an endeavour), which is central to the essence of a university. The quality of such departments’ research is not yet an important criterion for their prestige. However, only Departments of Accounting that develop Accounting as a social science in scholarly activity in accounting deserve international recognition. This empirical study attempts to convince Departments of Accounting, particularly those whose academic programmes are accredited by SAICA, to embark on scholarly activity in accounting as soon as possible.

The start of the twenty‐first century was marred by a spate of company collapses that involved fraudulent accounting activity. In many cases, company executives, many of whom belonged to the accounting profession, perpetrated the fraud. As a result, internationally, the accounting profession has suffered an enormous loss of goodwill, and its reputation as a profession with integrity has been severely harmed. Accounting professionals are no longer accorded the high regard they commanded in the past.The consequences for the profession have been far‐reaching: accounting now faces a long, uphill battle to restore its reputation and to regain the trust of the international business community. This study replicates two famous international studies in the South African context. The focus of the study was to establish whether factors such as the Code of Professional Conduct of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), the corporate ethical environment and their age influence the ethical judgement of individual accountants. The first such study was conducted in the United States of America (USA), and it was followed by similar research in Turkey. The results of these two studies suggested very different factors that could influence accountants’ ethical judgement. The study reported in this article investigated South African chartered accountants; and its results were similar to those obtained in the US study.

Differential reporting was introduced in South Africa with the enactment of the Corporate Laws Amendment Act 24 2006. Since it was urgent that the standard‐setters provide limited interest companies with interim guidance as to the preparation and presentation of financial statements, South Africa adopted the International Accounting Standards Board’s International Financial Reporting Standard for Small and Mediumsized Entities in its draft form. This study looks at the development of accounting standards for small and mediumsized entities in South Africa. It also examines analyses of prior research on differential reporting and the due process of the International Accounting Standards Board on this topic, as well as the due process of the South African standard‐setter. The paper provides a contextual analysis of the unique reporting environment of South African companies and concludes that adopting the draft IFRS for SMEs may have been the best option for the standard‐setting body in providing relief for limited interest companies from the cost of complying with the International Financial Reporting Standards while still enabling auditors to express an opinion on the financial statements.

South African business organisations operate in an environment that is changing rapidly. One of the key drivers of this change is advances in information technology (IT). Accountants are educated at various tertiary institutions to prepare them to be competent as information and knowledge workers in the South African business environment. This article aims to determine the nature and demands of the South African business and the IT environment in which accountants must function. This analysis identifies the context within which IT skills are applied by accountants by investigating the South African business and IT environment to determine how educational institutions could ensure that the students they deliver possess the critical IT skills they need to be competent in the South African business environment.

This paper presents the results of a survey designed to determine what tax topics are important in the educational background of a trainee accountant entering the training environment in South Africa. These topics were then compared to the 2008 tax syllabus prescribed by SAICA and taught at accredited universities in respect of the 2009 Qualifying Examination. The results indicated that the 2008 syllabus is largely meeting the expectations of respondents both in and outside public practice, although there are a number of topics that the syllabus setters and educators should reconsider when next reviewing and updating the 2008 syllabus and as part of the considerations for the new competency framework.