Accounting Science students up in arms about ‘unfair’ exam

by | Jan 28, 2019 | Featured 1

Students say that they were set up to fail auditing supplementary exam.

A group of over 50 third-year BAccSci students who failed their supplementary auditing exam fear that they will not be able to secure funding and register for the upcoming academic year.

In a meeting organised by the students with the Head of School of Accountancy, Professor Nirupa Padia, on Wednesday, January 23, the students claimed that the ACCN3015 paper which they wrote on November 27, 2018, was “identical” to that written by the fourth-year class during the same period and that is the reason for their failure.

Padia told the students that she would consider their complaints and try and come up with a solution before their next meeting, scheduled for Thursday, January 31. The students have also written to the Vice-Chancellor’s office and the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Sifiso Mduli, who was repeating third year, fears that he will lose his bursary if these grievances are not resolved soon. The students are demanding a review of their exam or possibly even a second sitting because they say these results cast a doubt on their future at the university.

“I’ve communicated with my bursar but it’s difficult to explain. They’ll believe that I am incompetent especially because of last year. So it seems like I might be forced to fund myself if I want to continue studying.

The students also alleged at the meeting with Padia that some of their classmates had been allowed to view their scripts and review their marks while others were not permitted. Those who had viewed their scripts were said to have subsequently passed.

The situation has gained national attention with the issue being discussed on SAfm early last week. The requirements of the course were highlighted in the radio discussion with Professor Jason Cohen, the deputy dean of the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management. The requirements are that third-year students have to pass all four of their subjects (management accounting and finance, taxation, auditing and financial accounting) to progress to fourth year.

“This is not a qualification requirement to receive the Bachelors of Accounting Science degree, it is an entry requirement into the fourth year or, so-called CTA year,” Cohen said. “So a number of students managed to pass through by obtaining credits in a more piecemeal manner. It is only in trying to access that fourth year that we require those students to pass through.”

Cohen argued on air that, despite these demands, most students had performed reasonably well, saying that nearly three quarters of the student body had passed three of the four courses, while auditing had a pass rate of 60%.

“I understand the frustrations of the students who were not able to succeed this time around but nearly 500 students passed that particular course being referred to,” Cohen added.

Third-year BAccSci student, Rudelle Pillay, said that she had been left with very few options and hoped the situation would be resolved before the academic year began.

“I feel that they have been inconsistent; there’s no transparency in this course. We have been talking to them for weeks so this could get resolved sooner rather than later.

“I’ve had to convert to a BCom because I wanted to register. My parents cannot afford to pay for those four subjects again, considering that I still owe money,” Pillay added.

FEATURED IMAGE: The School of Accountancy is wrapped in controversity as students claim to have disadvantaged in supp exam Photo: Tshego Mokgabudi

RELATED ARTICLES:

Finance students learn from KPMG saga

by | Sep 29, 2017 | Featured 1, News

KPMG South Africa has been under heavy criticism recently after the auditing firm retracted conclusions and findings of a report conducted for the South African Revenue Services (Sars) following an internal investigation. Finance students have been urged to use the KPMG controversy as a case study for their future careers in the financial services sector.   (more…)

Witsies take Accounting to Soweto

by | Aug 28, 2015 | News

The Wits Accounting Student Council (ASC) handed over calculators and gave a few words of encouragement to disadvantaged learners in Zola, Soweto. 

favourite 6 OF 8 (8 of 1)

FUTURE WITSIES: Grade 11 accounting students accepting calculators from ASC’s chairperson Sewela Makgolane and Social Development office Siphindile Gumede with Miss Magagula.

The Wits School of Accountancy Students Council (ASC) visited Kwadedangendlane High School in Zola, Soweto, earlier today to motivate learners to pursue accounting and mathematics. 

The students took the opportunity to hand over 40 calculators that will be used by the Grade 11 class at the school. 

Siphindile Gumede, ASC’s social development officer, said the visit was to “encourage but also emphasise the importance of education to township learners”.

Speaking to Wits Vuvuzela, the head of the commerce department in Kwadedangendlane High, Iris Magagula said “when it comes to commerce, we hardly get visitors”.

“I promise you, you are not betting on a losing horse” said Tom Mnisi, school principal.

According the Mnisi, “the learners in this school come from squatter camps around the area”. He added that “despite these circumstances, our matric pass rate has never been less than 80%”.

The ASC started collecting the calculators in May and are hoping to collect more before the year ends.

“The initial plan was to collect calculators from students, but we got companies like SAICA [South African Institute of Chartered Accountants] and LBOC Fund [Lets build our count] to sponsor us”, said Gumede.

“We hope those who become part of the council continue with the initiative and do more,” she said.

Accountancy students upset by course change

by | Mar 20, 2015 | News

Second year BCom students at the School of Accountancy are unhappy about course changes implemented at the beginning of this year. They have concerns about employment, the course work covered and transferring to other universities to study a postgraduate degree.

NOT A COLOURFUL SITUATION: 2nd year students at the School Of Accountancy are unhappy over course changes implemented at the beginning of this year.

NOT A COLOURFUL SITUATION: 2nd year students at the School Of Accountancy are unhappy about course changes implemented at the beginning of this year.         Photo: Riante Naidoo

Students in the Wits School of Accountancy have expressed unhappiness about recent changes in the second year curriculum.

The new curriculum, introduced at the start of this semester, now includes International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) but students say a lack of communication has led to uncertainty and confusion.

“The change caused a major uproar in the school,” Sewela Makgolane, second year BComAcc and chair of the Accounting Student Council (ASC), said.
Phiwe Fongoqa, 2nd year BComAcc, said returning students were not notified of the syllabus change prior to registration.

To Makgolane, the introduction of the new course means that “when you leave Wits with a BCom degree, you can’t really aim to work in a company that is not classified as an SME”.

Implications of the course change

Bursary students are also adversely affected by the change. “Some students are on a bursary with a company which expects them to learn the full standards,” Makgolane said. “You go back to your bursary holder and tell them you’re learning IFRS for SMEs and they respond by saying that they are not an SME.”

“Another challenge is that a BComAcc honours is no longer offered,” Makgolane said. “You can’t even look at the option of doing your honours at UCT (University of Cape Town) or elsewhere because elsewhere they are covering the full IFRS for SMEs.”

Although students were not notified of the syllabus change, accounting course coordinator, Yaeesh Yasseen, said: “The new syllabus was carefully thought out.”

Reasons for the course change

“Professor Robert Garnett who sat on the International Accounting Board in London developed the new system,” Yasseen said. “He [Garnett] said from an education perspective it is better to teach from the IFRS for SMEs, even UCT teaches via IFRS for SMEs in 1st and 2nd year.”

“Our bottleneck courses, used to be Financial Accounting 2 and 3 and saw a large number of failures,” said Head of School Professor Nirupa Padia. “Students would repeat until they were stuck in the system and then drop out with no degree due to financial constraints.”

“Previously students were leaving Wits with a BCom degree with majors which didn’t make sense and found challenges being employed because the net of the BCom is so wide,” Yasseen said.
“We changed the system in order to give these students the opportunity to have a Wits degree” Padia said.

Several students noted a communication gap within the school’s student and management levels. “There is a gap because there is not enough exposure for BComAcc students as most things are focused on AccSci students,” Makgolane said.

“This year we are looking to do a project with SARS who offer a two-year internship to BComAcc students,” she said. “We are doing our best to network and secure jobs for them [BCom students] because companies need accountants, not just chartered accountants.”

“Whether you are doing IFRS for SMEs or the full IFRS, the conceptual framework and principles are the same and covered in the three years,” Yasseen said. He also said the IFRS syllabus is available free online, whereas the text books cost R1 200 and need to be changed yearly.

A “refresher course” is offered to help BCom graduates transition into attaining an AccSci degree. Padia said this is part of the new system implemented aimed at getting more students to graduate and avoid them “getting stuck in the pipeline.”

Witsies face uncertain future without NSFAS

by | Jan 22, 2015 | News

Prospective journalists, doctors and accountants are among some of the Witsies who might see their dreams deferred for lack of  funding from NSFAS.

Witsie Anelisa Tuswa told Wits Vuvuzela that she was accepted into Journalism Honours at the university but may not be able to take up her place because her NSFAS application is still pending.

Tuswa has been on financial aid since her first year and receiving funding had never been a problem before.

“My mom is a domestic worker who works only three days a week and NSFAS have never been hesitant to accept me. They always gave me the full package – accommodation, food and tuition.”

Tuswa has no other funding options and if “NSFAS doesn’t fix this” she will not be able to continue her studies.

Wits Vuvuzela spoke with Marvin Mhlanga, a third year BCom Accounting student, who applied last year for NSFAS 2015 but has not yet received an outcome on his financial aid request.

“Scholarships grant me funding and some study loans require someone to pay monthly or someone to pay a certain amount monthly and my single mother can’t afford that,” Mhlanga said.

Mhlanga added  that he fears he won’t be able to “raise the money needed to pay for the registration fee”.

“Some study loans require someone to pay a certain amount monthly and my single mother can’t afford that.”

A fifth year medical student who wished to remain anonymous said he could not return to his classes because his NSFAS funding had not come through .

“Medical School started on January 5. I could not return because I was unable to register,” he said. “I don’t have the money to pay the registration fees. How am I supposed to continue?”

A second issue facing NSFSA applicants at Wits is loss of documents.

Vice-Chancellor of Academics Prof Andrew Crouch partially blamed last years postal strike for missing documents.

“Some students sent in their NSFAS applications by post and due to the strike we were unable to receive them. Some applications have only been received now months after they were sent to Wits,” he said.

Wits LLB student Andile Mbhele applied for NSFAS funding at Wits to continue his degree in 2015. Mbhele said he had not heard back from Wits and when he called them on Monday the university said “the document was missing”.

“When I asked them if I could resend the missing document, they told me it was too late,” he said. “How am I going to finish my degree with no funding?”

Mbhele said that NSFAS is his “last option” to continue his studies at Wits.

“All my hopes are with NSFAS,” he said

 

RELATED ARTICLES:

Wits Vuvuzela: WITS STUDENTS PROTEST NSFAS APPLICATION COMPLICATIONS, January 21, 2015

Wits Vuvuzela: NSFAS STUDENTS STILL ASKED TO COUGH UP AT WITS, January 21, 2015

Between Rockey and a hard place

by | Nov 12, 2014 | Indepth2014

There is one resident in Rockey Corner who does not want to stay in Yeoville any more. She opens her door to the smell of decaying rubbish and fears her children will be victims of crime on their walk to school. She is happy with her building’s redevelopment but thinks her neighbours don’t belong.

Melba Khumalo lives in flat 102 of Rockey Corner on Rockey Street, Yeoville. A qualified financial accountant, currently unemployed, she has been living here for the past eight years. The building consists of 10 apartments and most of the tenants are Zimbabwean migrants.

During the 1970s and ’80s the building had mainly white middle-class tenants but Yeoville experienced a dramatic demographic shift, with its population changing from 85% white in 1990 to 2% white in 2011. The demographic shift came about as urban management went into decline in the Johannesburg CBD. The urban decay infiltrated into neighbouring areas, as major businesses moved north to Sandton.

COMPARISON: Property developers Vuka Jozi spent approximately R4-million on Liandra Centre in 2008, after the decaying building was hijacked by tenants. Investor Michael Dick considers the money spent to be a poor investment. Photos: provided

Vuka Jozi Properties bought Rockey Corner in 2008 and, by the end of 2009, had spent close to R4-million on its redevelopment. Vuka Jozi has attempted to bring the building back to its original economic status: providing middle-class accommodation. Rockey Corner is a newly painted building with upgrades such as refurbished bathrooms, security features, newly employed cleaning staff and a designated caretaker.

Hijacked buildings

Khumalo, a South African born in Limpopo, says she feels content with her living conditions but every time she opens her door, she is greeted by the smell of decomposing rubbish. As she looks across the corridor, she points to a building a few metres away. This is Melody Court. It has been hijacked by what Khumalo calls “thugs”, people who are not tenants and who pose a threat far more dangerous than a tenant hijacking, according to her.

When tenants hijack a building it is because there is a dispute with management. They will refuse to pay rent and continue to live on the property without engaging in any dangerous behaviour.

When “thugs” hijack the building, they are usually armed and can take over a building, overnight. According to the City of Johannesburg, the hijackings occur mostly in “bad buildings” – buildings that have been abandoned and neglected by their owners – leading to illegal occupation. In most cases, these “bad buildings” do not have electricity or running water, are overcrowded and are a fire and safety hazard. Often, the residents are illegal immigrants without proper documentation.

Khumalo believes the “thugs” next door are foreigners looking to make some quick money. These usurpers rent out rooms to tenants. The rooms get divided into sections using curtains rails. Then a bed is placed in each section on the floor. The residents pay R1200 or more for a single bed, while all the residents that can be fitted into the flat have to use the same bathroom.

Rockey Corner’s caretaker, Daniel Rasebotsa, says that “thugs” from Melody Court have attempted to steal electricity from Rockey Corner, using illegal cables connected to the building’s basement. They were soon apprehended and police confiscated the cables.

THE BASEMENT: The basement of Rockey Corner has been occupied by a panel beating company. This is also where “thugs” from the neighbouring hijacked building broke through the wall in an attempt to steal electricity. Photo: Luca Kotton

Rasebotsa says the tenants of Melody Court also routinely throw refuse and other waste onto the grounds of Rockey Corner, causing the stench Khumalo describes.

Rattling the window that has been welded to its bracket because of the theft of all the brass handles, Khumalo says: “Our building looks so nice. Our neighbours don’t qualify to be our neighbours. Anyone who doesn’t want to pay rent is a dodgy person in my eyes. The crime in our building has increased and it’s all because of the people next door, who don’t want to look for a job.”

Yeoville’s big backers

Vuka Jozi Properties has eight residential buildings and 10 commercial buildings in Yeoville and its surrounding neighbourhoods. The company is pessimistic about the chances of an immediate regeneration of the area.“In theory, Yeoville can be redeveloped but there is no chance of this happening any time in the near future. Yeoville needs a champion to go in and do all the legwork,” says Vuka Jozi owner and managing director, Michael Dick.

Rockey Corner was Vuka Jozi’s first Yeoville residential purchase back in 2008, when the building was still called Liandra. In the 1990s, it housed a well-known bakery and a Jamaican eatery that Rita Marley, the widow of Bob Marley, frequently visited when she was in South Africa. The building also housed the first mosque in Yeoville, situated on the second floor, which later relocated to Dunbar Street. ANC activist Janet Love, part of Operation Vula, is said to have kept arms and ammunition hidden in the building’s ceiling during the peace negotiations in the 1990s.

Things deteriorated in 2007 when tenants who were dissatisfied with their living conditions hijacked the building. After the purchase, Vuka Jozi laid out a plan of action which included keeping the entire group of original “hijackers”, some of whom even worked on the redevelopment by cleaning and painting.

Dick says if he could go back in time he would never have bought the building, because of the high risk of crime and fairly low profit margins. He describes Rockey Corner as a poor investment in terms of redevelopment. He has spent large amounts of money on the building and it has ultimately been wasted by the behaviour of residents in neighbouring buildings.

Dick says crime is a major problem when it comes to maintenance. His company constantly replaces and repairs damaged or stolen parts, eating into his profits. For security reasons, a building employee stays permanently in most of Vuka Jozi’s properties in Yeoville. The employee is expected to check up on the building two to three times a day, monitoring tenants, maintaining the building and managing cleaning and security staff. The employee is also a communicator between the tenants and owner.

PRIVACY ISSUES: Melba Khumalo sub-lets to four tenants to make extra income because of the couples’ financial situation. Seen here are curtains dividing the TV room to create extra space for a woman and her daughter. Photo: Luca Kotton

New building owners come into the area and find a huge hole in the roof with all the new belongings gone. This, Dick says, is known among owners in the area as the “Yeoville initiation”. And the first thing he does when buying a new building is equip it with an electric fence.

Failed bids

The Johannesburg City Council (JCC) has invested in Yeoville. The library and public swimming pool have been refurbished, a recreation centre has been built and a new police station is currently being erected. Angeline Ramahlo, town planner of the JCC, says that for an area like Yeoville to properly redevelop, it would need to apply to the JCC with a proposal to become a city improvement district (CID).

A CID is a private initiative by building owners in the area. In order for Yeoville to become one, 33% of the building owners in the area would need to approach the JCC. If their proposal is approved, more than half of the building owners would need to pay a levy every month to sustain the extra maintenance, cleaning and security services the city would supply.

Ramahlo says that CIDs are high priority areas for the JCC in greater Johannesburg. For example, if there is a pothole in Yeoville and one in Braamfontein, the pothole in Braamfontein would get attended to first, because of the latter’s CID status.

Ramahlo says attempts have been made in Yeoville to develop a proposal to get CID status. But it has not worked out. The biggest problem was that a large percentage of property owners could not be found, so they never reached the 33% needed for a successful application.

The JCC classifies areas into certain categories in order to allocate resources. For the JCC to focus more on an area, it would need to be classified as “marginalised”. This means that the area would need to be previously disadvantaged and have little or no access to basic city services such as running water, proper sanitation and electricity. Examples of this are parts of Diepsloot and Soweto.

Yeoville has a large number of hijacked buildings where residents burn candles at night, use buckets filled with water and share a bathroom among six or more residents. But that’s not enough for it to be classified “marginalised”, according to the JCC criteria.

“Yeoville is not yet considered a marginalised area. The area’s history means it was not considered in this category. However it is slowly becoming more of a marginalised area,” Ramahlo says. She adds that areas are constantly being monitored and, in the near future, Yeoville could be considered a marginalised area according to the JCC.

Neighbouring CID zones

There have been successful transformations in neighbouring areas of Yeoville. Braamfontein and the downtown Maboneng Precinct are now considered CID zones.

In 2002, local government realised how important the location and function of Braamfontein was to the local economy, and embarked on a multimillion-rand regeneration programme for the area. This was supplemented by significant private-sector investment.

Property developer Adam Levy, who has been largely responsible for the regeneration of Braamfontein, says: “Redevelopment in Yeoville absolutely could work. But you need heavy investment, the property owner community buy-in and someone with backbone to drive it all.”

Levy adds that Braamfontein and Maboneng were different to Yeoville as the majority of properties in the area were owned by only a few investors. Yeoville, however, has separate owners for separate buildings, which makes it more difficult to get CID status, because of the need to contact all property owners and get them to work together.

Levy worked on renovating buildings in Braamfontein for 11 years and helped the area achieve CID status in 2004. He says the process of creating a CID takes time. According to him, Yeoville is a good opportunity for someone from the next generation of property developers because it is well positioned and could be developed into something similar to Braamfontein.

Let’s move

A LONG WALK: Rosy Khumalo’s mother fears for the safety of her 15-year-old daughter because she has to walk through Yeoville to get to school – about 5km away. Photo: Luca Kotton

Khumalo, in her eight years of living in Rockey Corner, has made flat 102 her home. She lives there with her husband and three children, aged 11, 13 and 15. Their children go to school in Braamfontein and she has plans of moving.

“I hope in time that the building next door will be bought and redeveloped by an owner. When people have to pay a bigger rent, they will start treating their living spaces like a home and all the rubbish and crime will hopefully slowly go away. I believe it is a chain reaction and when people take initiative and start redeveloping, others will also take more pride in the area and eventually Yeoville will actually start looking and feeling much more like a home.

“But for me, as soon as my husband and I can get stable jobs, we will be moving to a better area because Yeoville is not a safe environment for my children who have to walk from my house to school every day. I don’t want them growing up in this neighbourhood.”

Meet 92-year-old piano teacher Ros Liebman, who has lived in Yeoville-Bellevue for over 53 years. She has seen the once famous Rockey Street deteriorate as she started to experience more crime and lose some of her students By: Luca Kotton

FEATURED IMAGE: Melba Khumalo sub-lets to four tenants to make extra income because of the couples’ financial situation. Seen here are curtains dividing the TV room to create extra space for a woman and her daughter. Photo: Luca Kotton

RELATED ARTICLES: