South African Business 2018 edition

OVERVIEW
Business services
Consulting is a growth industry.
South Africa represents about 75% of Africa’s consulting market,
but there has been good growth in other parts of Africa in
recent years.
Several large international consulting firms are active in
South Africa and offer a broad range of services. After South Africa
achieved democratic status in 1994, the sector experienced a boom.
Companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Deloitte,
Accenture, McKinsey & Company, Bain & Company and EY are amongst
the biggest consulting firms operating in South Africa. A major controversy
erupted in 2017 when KPMG South Africa became embroiled
in the issue of state capture because of its auditing contract with the
Gupta family and its report on an alleged secret unit within the South
African Revenue Service (SARS). Eight senior executives resigned. The
“Big Four” auditing firms, all of which have diverse consulting divisions,
are responsible for auditing South Africa’s big banks so they play a vital
role in the financial system. The other three are Deloitte, EY and PwC.
The uproar about KPMG illustrated the importance of the role of industry
regulators such as the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants
and the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors.
The Southern African management consulting market was estimated
to be worth R15.6-billion in 2014 (Source Information Services). South
African consultancies such as DaySeven Group offer management
consulting, advisory services and research.
In the financial sector, banks have divisions that offer advice when
big transactions are made in areas such as the structuring of deals,
ONLINE RESOURCES
Business Process enabling South Africa (BPeSA):
www.bpesa.co.za
Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors: www.irba.co.za
Institute of Management Consultants and Master Coaches of
South Africa: www.imcsa.org.za
National Department of Trade and Industry: www.dti.gov.za
South African Institute of Chartered Accountants:
www.saica.co.za
SECTOR INSIGHT
Regulators were active in
2017.
equity finance and asset finance.
Several consulting firms specialise
in economic policy, strategy and
risk management. Among these
are DNA Economic, Econometrix,
Eunomix and Genesis Analytics,
the largest economic consulting
firm in Africa.
Business support services
include those services that companies
may prefer to outsource
to specialist providers so that
they can focus on their own core
competencies. This might include
security, catering, cleaning, legal
services, furniture and stationery
supply, software and hardware
management, recruitment, call
centres, customer care and many
other key services that are better
left to the experts.
Call centres are a key element of
the Business Process Outsourcing
(BPO) sector. The national Minister
of Trade and Industry, Rob Davies,
says that the local BPO sector has
had compounded growth since
2012 of 25% year-on-year. There
are approximately 30 000 jobs nationally
with the top market being
the UK.
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