Babalwa Ngonyama CA(SA) Babalwa is passionate about ... - Unisa

Babalwa Ngonyama CA(SA)
Babalwa is passionate about her job and the
advancement of female Chartered
Accountants(CAs) as strategic decision-makers in
Business. That is why she was involved in
founding the African Women Chartered
Accountants (AWCA).
The need to do something different from your usual history and
physics in school has led Babalwa to where she is now.
As a partner at Deloitte, Babalwa is responsible for the Auditing of
financial services institutions like banks, Insurance companies,
Private Equity, Micro Lending and Stock Brokers. The job entails
acting as a steward for the shareholders in ensuring that the
financial statements fairly present the true financial position of the
company.
A few years ago, she was invited by the four founder members of
AWCA to form part of the task team that performed preliminary
research and held initial discussions on the necessity for a forum
like AWCA. Leading the task team, Babalwa was appointed to the
board where she was subsequently appointed as Chairman.
AWCA was founded in 2002 with the objective of primarily
facilitating and advancing the appointment of female CAs as
decision makers. With over 90 women CA members throughout
South Africa, the company is managed by an eight member board.
“African women make up less than 1% of the CAs in the country,
and as such, AWCA has positioned itself to serve as a support base
for qualified woman CAs, creating and maintaining a database for
African women CAs, develop profiles of these women, contribute to
national policy formulation on gender, economic and socio-economic
matters, while creating awareness and providing support to African
Woman CAs in the rural areas, and recognise and honour the
achievements of women,” Babalwa says.
This dynamic woman is now the ex founding chairman of AWCA and
is currently on the presidents club of the forum and acts as an
advisory board to the new chairman.
What are the challenges facing aspiring African women CAs?
It is widely recognised that there are some hurdles to overcome
before qualifying as a CA. That is why organisations such as SAICA

and ABASA continue to work tirelessly in increasing the number of
Africans qualifying as CAs.
Some issues facing qualified women CAs include:
• Coping with new working environment, e.g. cultural
differences;
• Dealing with prejudices against women and Africans in the
white male dominated corporate South Africa;
• Lack of opportunities for networking with other African women
CAs;
• Lack of support system /mentorship from other women who
have been in similar situations;
• Professional competition gets tougher and members of other
race groups are quicker in gaining professional confidence;
and
• Having to fight to establish credibility and trust in the
corporate world.
Why CA (SA) as a career choice?
It is a superb career choice as it is very challenging, satisfying and
rewarding. Being a CA(SA) requires courage, focus and a lot of
determination. Make sure that it is something you like, this way
your chances of success will be greatly enhanced. The challenge
once this is accomplished is to lift other women while climbing the
corporate ladder – by so doing you will be lifted further.