SINDI ZILWA, SCOOPES ANOTHER AWARD AND ADDING FLAVOUR TO THE ACCOUNTANCY PROFESSION

Sindi Zilwa, the CEO of Nkonki Incorporated was awarded by the African Women Chartered Accountants Forum (AWCA) as the Woman of Substance for 2008 on Thursday night, 28 August 2008 at the Sandton Convention Centre.

Zilwa was honoured for her great contribution and the significant role she has played in the accountancy profession and the passion she has shown in advancing black women.

The AWCA Woman of Substance Award stands for high integrity, bold leadership, passion for women advancement and determined community involvement.

In 1991 Zilwa was nominated as one of the four finalist of the Cosmopolitan Mover of the year competition. In 1996 she received an Award from UNITRA Commerce Students for the development role she played in the University students’ career and was nominated as one of ABASA’s most active members. In 1998 she was nominated as South Africa’s Businesswoman of the Year by the Executive Women’s Club.

In 1999 she was nominated as one of the Top 20 Business People in South Africa. In 2001 she was nominated as one of other Top 10 Business Personalities in South Africa by the Black Management Forum and Impumelelo Top 300 companies. In 2004 Sindi received the Top Emrging Female Owned company of the Year Awardunder the finance catergory.

Excited Zilwa mentioned that it hasn’t been an easy road for her to success, and it has been more like a roller coaster ride with moments of hopes, gains, pains and tears as she said “There is no elevator to success. The only way to the top is through the stairs, if you are lucky there would be escalators”.

After qualifying as a Chartered Accountant she taught accounting at Walter Sisulu University in Umtata. However the pace of developing Chartered Accountants was very slow for her and the shock of discovering that she was the second black Chartered Accountant in South Africa compelled her to open an accounting and auditing practice and train more blacks to become Chartered Accountants. To date Nkonki Incorporated has spent over R1, 5 million in the training and development of Chartered Accountants.

Sindi Zilwa in her speech committed herself to the accountancy profession and stressed the need to build up the profession to be seen as more value for money, dependable, loyal, and indispensable to clients businesses.

Zilwa described her role and contribution as “adding salt or flavour “and “bringing light” to the accountancy profession so that more and more black people could become Chartered Accountants and change the economy of the country.

Proceeds from the event will benefit the AWCA Bursary Fund. The Bursary Fund was set up to provide financial aid to black female students who wish to pursue the Chartered Accounting (SA) qualification. In the past 3 years since the inception of the bursary fund in 2005, AWCA has raised close to R1 million and has been able to provide for the full tuition of ten aspirant chartered accountants, under the SAICA Thuthuka bursary fund.