Partner activities

PwC South Africa is a partnership, with 272 partners at 30 June 2020.

Admissions

The partner admission process is overseen by the Admissions Committee, a subcommittee of the Governance Board. This year, we congratulate the 19 individuals who have reached a major milestone in their careers, and joined us as partners.

Together, our new partners tell the story of the firm we are. We create opportunities for personal growth and success, we value diversity, we stand for quality and integrity and we always take the long-term view. These newly admitted partners represent the next generation of leaders who put people first—leaders who do the right thing for our staff and clients, for our teams and for our communities.

As a firm we have committed to move the needle on diversity and inclusion. We are making progress but—even with our new admissions—we are far from the end of our journey. We want our firm to reflect society, and there’s more to do to reach that goal. But we are committed to doing the work to get there.

Accountability

Partners are remunerated based on their level of responsibility, the firm and their business unit’s performance, and individual performance. Our audit partners are not evaluated or compensated for selling non-audit services to their clients. Partners are evaluated based on their contributions to people, quality and profitable growth. Partner accomplishments are measured based on the partner’s relative performance against established goals, taking their responsibility level into account. Partners are also held accountable in accordance with our accountability framework — which imposes financial sanctions on partners who do not meet our high standards of quality.

Average age of partners: 46.53 years
Average tenure of partners: 9.64 years
Average experience of audit partners : 20 years

Our distributable profit per partner is calculated on a pre-tax basis and the taxes tax stats borne individually by our partners include both income and corporation tax on subsidiary profits.

Partner development and wellness programmes

During the 2019/2020 financial year a number of partner development programmes were presented in addition to technical skills development and other professional continuous development programmes. These focused on developing partners’ business skills, and were presented increasingly through the PwC global network as well as through local business schools and specialists. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, various programmes have been successfully presented on a virtual basis which improved access to development opportunities to partners from smaller offices.

During the financial year partners spent 11 924 hours on professional and personal development – an average of 42 hours per partner for the 2020 financial year.

Nineteen partners took a two-month sabbatical during the financial year. All partners who have a tenure of more than five years are encouraged to apply for a sabbatical which is approved in accordance with our existing sabbatical policy.

Investment

The total amount invested in our partners’ development for the financial year amounted to approximately R4 million. This amount includes only payments to external service providers and not the actual or opportunity costs of using mainly internal resources to deliver technical training. This amount decreased from 2019 due to several classroom-based training being moved out due to the COVID-19 pandemic or presented on a virtual basis.