The National Interest award recognises those who are purposely driven to change the lives of others for the better. It honours those who understand that we only rise higher when we uplift others in the process and therefore strive to make a lasting corporate social investment impact, changing lives and communities for the better.

Chantyl Mulder CA(SA), a senior executive at SAICA and executive of Marketplace Academy is known as Mother Thuthuka, thanks to her role in founding the Thuthuka Education Upliftment Fund. She has also been described as one of the profession’s greatest champions of transformation and education.

After years of honing her understanding of professional education through duties such as overseeing university accreditation and monitoring, reviewing the curriculum, accreditation and monitoring training offices and programmes and setting the qualifying examinations, Chantyl was asked to create a solution to the accounting profession’s slow rate of transformation in 2002.

At the time, SAICA’s CA(SA) membership base remained skewed at 92% white, 5% Indian, 2% African and 1% Coloured.

And so, the Thuthuka bursary fund was born. After 20 years in existence, Thuthuka has been instrumental in opening up the profession to previously disadvantaged racial groups.

Under the guidance of SAICA’s then-CEO, Ignatius Sehoole, and driven by Chantyl’s passion and grit, SAICA managed to enable wider access to the profession and fund more aspiring Black and Coloured CA(SA)s.

20 years on over 7 500 African and over 2 000 Coloured CA(SA)s have qualified, thanks to the focus SAICA has placed on transforming the racial representation of SAICA’s membership base.

It is not surprising that the Thuthuka model was presented at the International Federation of Accountants’ 2014 meeting as a model to benchmark the profession’s global transformation efforts. It has also been commended by the World Bank as a ‘world first’ for its “decisive steps [in] transform[ing] the profession”.

After 37 years of unwavering and dedicated service, Chantyl has had a significant impact on the accounting profession.

She was instrumental in setting CA education and training standards at an international level through her work with the International Federation of Accountants.

Chantyl entered the realm of education and training of CA(SA) in 1985 with the Public Accountants and Auditors Board (now the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors). Here Chantyl began to further develop the rigorous and internationally recognised education and training model that all aspiring CA(SA)s must undergo to qualify today.

Her life of service to others led her to be invited as a highly valued member of, among others, the President’s B-BBEE empowerment advisory council; the department of higher education and training’s technical working group for the human resource development strategy of South Africa; and the Ministerial Task Team charged with finding a solution for the country’s “missing middle”.

Through the latter project, Chantyl was instrumental in creating and implementing the Ikusasa Student Financial Aid Programme, which today supports over 1 000 “missing middle” students pursuing careers in 12 of South Africa’s most needed scarce skill careers.

About receiving the National Interest award, Chantyl says “I was very humbled and grateful, not forgetting that nothing great has ever been achieved by one person. So, I immediately think of the Thuthuka team and what a wonderful time we had and how all have contributed to the achievement of this award.”

However, nothing Chantyl has done throughout her career has been for recognition or prestige. “I have done it to change youngsters’ lives. As you know I have retired, and at this stage of my life, I am very grateful to be recognised for being a difference-maker. Through all the programmes we ran, we have made a massive difference in the lives of many youngsters and contributed greatly to them. My greatest reward is seeing our youngsters becoming CEOs and CFOs of large organisations and they are proud to acknowledge the role of Thuthuka. This, and the love and friendships made on this journey, are is my greatest rewards.”

Chantyl says although she is retired, she is not yet done with her life’s work.” I always promised the Lord that when I retire, I will spend the rest of my working life on changing the lives of our unemployed youth. Accordingly, we have set up the Marketplace Academy which will focus on empowering communities through youth development. The focus is the unemployed youth.”

Marketplace Academy endeavours to deal with this issue by seeking and developing a blueprint that can be replicated throughout the country, while working with strategic partners. “This calls for visionary leadership and I will be working with the profession as I do believe that the profession has the visionary leaders who need to show the way. One of the fundamental principles is collaboration (SDG17) if we are to achieve what we set out to do, as it is about mobilising all the forces for good,” she explains.

When thinking about her career thus far, the song from Dirty Dancing springs to mind. “I have had the time of my life these past 37 years and I owe it all to Ignatius for seeing in me the person who would be able to drive transformation in our profession. What a leader!”