The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), is a professional accountancy body in South Africa.
To become a student and a member of South African Institute of Chartered Accountants the candidate needs to enroll for a B Com Accounting degree or an equivalent CA(SA) undergraduate qualification at a SAICA accredited university. Once the degree is completed the student is required to complete his Certificate in the Theory of Accounting (CTA). This course focuses on Accounting, Auditing, Taxation and Financial Management. The course takes a minimum of one year and must be completed at a SAICA accredited university. Upon completion of CTA, the candidates are eligible to enter into a 3-year learnership with a Registered Training Office (RTO) (to specialise in auditing) or an Approved Training Organisation (ATO) (to specialise in financial management)
The first professional institute for accountants in South Africa was the Institute of Accountants and Auditors, formed in the South African Republic in Johannesburg in 1894 with 65 members. A year later the Institute of Accountants in Natal was established. The need to regulate the profession lead to the further establishment of various provincial institutes. In a move towards standardization, the first articles of clerkship were instituted in 1905 and the first journal was published in 1909. Although it did not become a regular publication till 1954, the journal was the sole communication vehicle aimed directly at members and indicated a need for unification. Between 1905 and 1907 accounting societies were established naming Cape Colony, The Orange River Colony and Natal. By the end of 1907, the Transvaal Society of Accountants(which represented more than a half of the registered accountants in South Africa) had grown to 522 members. From the earliest times attempts were made to form a national body. The first meaningful step took place on 6 May 1921 when the South African Accounting Societies' General Examining Board was formed to conduct the examination process on behalf of the societies. The second major milestone on the road to unification occurred in 1927, when the Chartered Accountants Designation (Private) Act was passed by parliament. The Act provided protection for the CA(SA) allowing only members of the then provincial societies to use it.
But world and local politics at the time hampered efforts towards forming a national body and it was only in 1945 that the Joint Council of the Societies of Chartered Accountants (SA), which provided a forum for co-operation between the societies, was formed. In 1950 all theoretical teaching and examining was handed over to universities, but the profession retained the right to set the qualifying examination. The first CTA examinations were held in 1951. The Public Accountants and Auditors Act was also promulgated in 1951 and it brought into place the regulation of accountants and auditors in public practice. The General Examining Board continued to set the qualifying examination until 1957 when it was taken over by the Public Accountants' and Auditors' Board (PAAB).
In 1966 The National Council of Chartered Accountants came into being with its own small secretariat – a further step in the process for unification which was finally achieved in 1980 when the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants was formed with 9012 members. 1973 saw the enactment of a new Companies Act and with it the requirement of companies to present financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting practice. The profession, together with chambers of commerce and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, formed the Accounting Practices Board to issue statements of Generally Accepted Accounting Practice.
