Ignatius Sehoole Takes Over as CEO of the Dumpster Fire That Is KPMG South Africa

Posted on by Jason Bramwell
KPMG building exterior with blue and white logo

KPMG in South Africa has had its problems of late. And the firm believes it has found the man to help fix them.

Good luck, Ignatius Sehoole!

KPMG South Africa is pleased to announce the appointment of Mr Ignatius Sehoole as Chief Executive Officer. Mr Sehoole is expected to take up this role on 1 May 2019.

Mr Sehoole is an experienced leader in the accounting profession having served a successful two-term role from 2000-2009 as the Executive President of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA). He succeeds Ms Nhlamulo Dlomu who will be taking up a new global role with KPMG, focusing on organisational culture change and ethical leadership.

Mr Sehoole’s start date is being coordinated to comply with the requirements of audit independence rules1. Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu will continue to serve as Executive Chairman in the interim and will revert to his non-executive Chairman role on 1 May. …

Sehoole commented:

“I am very honoured and look forward to the opportunity to help lead KPMG SA. It is imperative that the profession rises to the challenges it is facing, and it is in the national interest that KPMG be part of the solution.

My priority at KPMG will be to continue to restore client confidence and again make KPMG a firm where the best people wish to work. I look forward to the opportunity to accelerate this rehabilitation phase.”

Ignatius Sehoole

Sehoole really has his work cut out for him. KPMG South Africa is losing clients left and right, including Barclays Africa and the government’s Auditor-General, after it was revealed that the firm as auditor failed to disclose loans from small lender VBS Mutual Bank, which collapsed in March due to a “severe liquidity crisis.”

KPMG South Africa is also being investigated over work it did for a company owned by the billionaire Gupta family, who have been accused of using their links to former South Africa president Jacob Zuma to influence government decisions and the awarding of tenders.

As a result, the firm laid off 400 workers in June and closed some regional offices.

Economia reported that Sehoole comes to KPMG from MTN Group, where he had served as vice president since 2010. He’s also a former PwCer, where he previously worked as joint deputy executive and served on the firm’s executive committee. Sehoole was responsible for the integration of PwC’s operations across Africa. He is also a director at the Public Investment Corporation.

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KPMG University?

Well, sort of.

If you’re thinking something similar to Deloitte’s sprawling campus down in Texas, then you’d be mistaken. The British firm has decided to recruit “school leavers, not university graduates” and will sponsor them to get accounting degrees, reports the FT:

From next year, KPMG will take in 75 school leavers, and then meet the cost of a four-year accountancy degree from Durham university and an accountancy qualification. Trainees on the six-year scheme will start on up to £20,000 a year. In 2012-13, the maximum university tuition fee, now £3,290, will rise to £9,000. At the same time, subsidies are being withdrawn from the sector and rules loosened to allow new entrants into the market and innovation in course design. As a consequence, such schemes could become more attractive to universities.

You could reason that this is a good thing because of the money it will save the students but our concern lies with their university experience. Or, the lack thereof:

KPMG said it could eventually take “in excess of 400” of these trainees a year, more than half its intake. The scheme is therefore expected to replace much of its traditional graduate recruitment. KPMG trainees will not join a conventional degree course. They will, instead, attend special classes to allow them to spend most of their time working at one of the company’s offices.

So, maybe we’re misinterpreting the Queen’s English but that sure sounds like recruits spending their college days sporting business casual, undermining interns/new associates for gofer duties and nothing to do with binge drinking, drug experimentation, gaining the freshman 15 (50?) or sinking themselves into debt. Is nothing sacred?

KPMG to fund young recruits’ degrees [FT]

KPMG Gives Green Light to Start Pretty Disappointing/Pleasantly Surprising Conversations

This just in (late on Friday):

Heard from a partner in our office, corroborated by the HR manager, that they can officially start having comp discussions with employees starting on Monday, 9/27.


So if you’ve got a scheduled sit-down or call today to have a little chat, let us know how it goes and spare no details. This includes – but is not limited to – percentage raise, bonus, your subsequent tirade (or jubilation) to hearing the news, any explanation that your messenger offered to make you feel better, the number of people crying in conference rooms, etc. And if you too shy/ashamed to share, just email us and we’ll update the post.

UPDATE:

This is just in:

Multiple partners in my office (including a sit down meeting with all senior associates) have floated numbers from 8% to 12-14%. We’ve been told Hearing that we will be “pleasantly surprised” by the numbers and that they will be higher than what Johnny V said this summer. Partners have received the comp numbers but have NOT yet been given the green light. Later today is the plan.

Discuss.

UPDATE 2: The latest from a Southern KPMG office:

SP: 5-7%, 2% bonus
SP+: 7-12%, 4% bonus
EP: 10-14%, 6% bonus

Range is attributable to prior year ranking and individual performance. For example, there may be a “really good” SP+ who was an SP last year, who may get 12%, or a “barely there” SP+ who was an EP last year getting 7%. Needless to say, morale is fairly high.

Also, all practices and divisions are having “EOCircle” events, which are small events ran by the partner. Mine is occurring at a bar, for example, for a happy hour. These are occurring this week.

UPDATE 3, September 28th:
Early reports are in:

I’m an SP+ SA3 (I was an EP each of the last few years) and got a 6.7% raise with a 2.5% bonus. I know an SP+ SA3 who was an SP/SP+ (no differentiation in prior years) who got 10.3% bump with a 2.5% bonus. We are now both making the same. It looks like the percentages were relatively correct but that the bonuses are slightly below what was originally communicated to us.