Thuthuka
About Thuthuka
The Thuthuka Education Upliftment Fund is SAICA’s pioneering initiative to promote transformation in the profession. Its objective is to transform the demographics of the profession to reflect those of the country in terms of race and gender, and provide educational support to African learners and students for the benefit of the profession, while simultaneously helping to uplift communities.
As a critical stakeholder in society, SAICA has undertaken the responsibility of ensuring that the economy has a consistent flow of adequately and suitably qualified accounting professionals who are representative of the country’s demographics.
Fulfilling this mission of creating a pipeline of chartered accountants [CAs(SA)] requires various skills development initiatives at primary, secondary and tertiary education level.
To drive this process and ensure its proper governance, SAICA established a skills development implementation known as the Thuthuka Education Upliftment Fund (TEUF) in 2002. The Thuthuka Bursary, established in 2005, operates under TEUF and its primary activity is assisting disadvantaged African and coloured students to become CAs(SA).
Thuthuka: inspiring success
Over the past 19 years, Thuthuka has become one of the most successful transformation and skills development programmes in South Africa.
Thuthuka’s value proposition is to sustain the future of the chartered accountancy profession and transform its demographics by:
- Advancing education
- Empowering the youth
- Sustaining the future of the chartered accountancy profession
The diagram below illustrates how Thuthuka plays a role across various education levels with the ultimate goal of enabling learners from disadvantaged backgrounds to access the chartered accountancy profession.
Through a network of programmes placed strategically at various levels throughout the education levels, Thuthuka’s success is evident:
While there are currently more than 47 000 registered CAs(SA) in South Africa, fewer than 9 000 of them are African and coloured. Thuthuka plays a crucial role in changing the demographic landscape of the chartered accountancy profession and helping South Africa to achieve its transformation objectives thought projects that impact on the full SAICA value chain.
