ABSTRACT
In this chapter the spotlight falls on the past and present state of the management accounting profession in South Africa. The aim is to highlight specific issues that may also affect the future development of the management accounting profession. Two professional accounting bodies, namely the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) and the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA), are actively involved in training and representing management accountants. However, the dominant accounting designation in South Africa remains the Chartered Accountant (SA) (CA(SA)) designation with more than 48 per cent of SAICA members employed in industry as management accountants, financial managers and general managers. The high cost of secondary education, high levels of poverty, unrest at some South African universities, long time-period to qualify, lack of appropriate communication skills (especially in English), low levels of literacy and the devaluation of the South African rand all appear to deter potential candidates from pursuing a career as management accountants.
