2019 Integrated Report transcript: Dion Shango shares the highlights

I’m delighted to share our 2019 Integrated Report for South Africa with our stakeholders. The publishing of this report comes at a most opportune time, with my new PwC Africa leadership team having taken office just a few months ago. This new leadership team brings with it a refreshed strategy for our Africa region, including South Africa, where we see a new leadership team as well, under the guidance of Shirley Machaba. It also brings continuity, as I report on the 2019 financial year, my last as Regional Senior Partner of PwC Southern Africa. 

This is our third comprehensive integrated report, and each year we have the opportunity to learn more about which areas are of interest to our stakeholders. This in turn helps them learn more about our firm, and helps us be more transparent in terms of what we’re doing and what we stand for. I really hope you enjoy it and find it useful.

Africa focus

Our Africa firm comprises three markets areas, East, West and South, and it’s pertinent to spend some time talking about what we call our One Africa focus. While each of our firms within our Africa region operate in unique markets with unique focus areas, we’re all bound by a common global purpose, namely to build trust in society and solve important problems. Regardless of where we operate on the continent, our clients expect a seamless service, characterised by quality, integrity and value. We deliver this through a common PwC Africa strategy, tailored for our unique markets, like South Africa. 

It is significant that this integrated report is being released as my Africa Leadership team and I begin our term. As South Africa CEO for the financial year ending June 2019, and now Africa CEO,  I would like the reader to walk away feeling like PwC is an organisation that is committed to South Africa. I would like this report to send a strong message that we believe we have a role to play in the continued development and growth of the country. Connected to this is that our stakeholders must be convinced, through our conduct, that we are an organisation deeply committed to its values.

PwC South Africa - Reflections on the past year

Technology

The fact that we’ve fully embraced our technology and digitisation journey is a big deal for me. The very same technology that our clients need, we’re finding that we need too. We’ve seen some significant technology implementations over the past year, aimed at streamlining our processes to ultimately better serve our clients. Just like our clients, we have to change our model to ensure it’s efficient, effective and relevant, as well as being connected for the future. Therefore we’ve invested in Oracle as our Finance system, Workday as our people system, and Salesforce as our client system. In some of these, our Africa firm is leading the way globally, with South Africa the pilot site for several of these implementations on the continent. 

Risk and quality

I’m proud of the manner in which we have weathered the storm in terms of maintaining our culture of risk and quality, especially in light of some of the recent corporate and accounting scandals. This is not negotiable for us, and every one of our people know it. 

Transformation

This year we were again proud to retain our Level 1 BEE rating, for the third year in a row. We continue to transform ourselves in terms of the look and feel of the PwC family, with publicly-stated goals in terms of transformation and diversity numbers as we move towards being an organisation that reflects the demographics of our society. I’m proud of our progress in this regard. 

Our people

Every year, we gather the opinions of our people through an annual survey. Our aim is to increase participation rates year on year, which I’m pleased to say we once again achieved in the recent 2019 survey. This survey allows us to react quickly and meaningfully to the things that matter to our people. Our people make the difference and every year thousands of people apply to join us - school leavers, graduates and experienced hires.  

Our purpose

Our purpose of building trust in society and solving important problems guides us through the client work that we undertake. It also ensures that we’re constantly aware of our impact on society and on the wider environment in which we operate. Complemented by five core values and a global code of conduct, it guides the behaviour and decision making processes of every person in our firm.

South Africa makes up 70% of the Africa practice. Having fulfilled the role of Southern Africa Regional Senior Partner for the past four years, I’m well placed to work very closely with my successor in this role, Shirley Machaba, offering guidance and support to her and her SA leadership. Considering the sheer contribution, size and influence of the South African firm, and bearing in mind the inevitable impact of mandatory audit firm rotation, our business model is being challenged, requiring us to reimagine how we reinvent ourselves. Reimagining this future is key to our success, and I look forward to sharing the details with you in this integrated report.