A survey of all 475 JSE-listed companies has revealed that South African company directors, CEOs and CFOs are still predominantly white and male; however, there are “hopeful” signs of transformation within the younger generation.

Research into the qualifications and diversity of JSE-listed company executives by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) earlier this year found that 75% of directorships were still held by whites and 87% by males.

Some 71% of the directorships held by whites were held by males, while 5% were held by females.

Analysing the racial split of directorships by age, the institute found that the number of white and black directors under 40 was almost equal, while, for directors aged between 41 and 50, whites outnumbered blacks by a factor of two-and-a-half.

Moreover, there were five times as many white directors over the age of 51 as there were black directors in this age bracket, and ten times as many in the over 61 age group.

Meanwhile, women – and black women in particular – filled a higher percentage of directorships in the under 50 age groups than they did among the over 50s group.

“This is understandable, as 20 years ago, there were very few black and or female chartered accountants, so we would expect the improvement to start in the younger groups first.

“We’ve broken the back of the gender transformation issue at that level and it’s just a matter of time before these numbers reflect at the directorship, CFO and CEO levels,” observed Saica CEO Dr Terence Nombembe, adding that 23.8% of the directorships surveyed were held by chartered accountants.

He nonetheless believed that, with the continued support of business and government, initiatives such as bursary funds could transform both the chartered accountancy profession and the make-up of JSE-listed firms.

“There’s no point in discarding skills that people have spent 30 or 40 years mastering purely because those people are white and male, until you have successors with the experience to replace them.

“As the growing number of black and female chartered accountants mature, we expect to see the racial and gender mix of older directors, CEOs and CFOs change to reflect the country’s true demographics,” he outlined.