Small CA Firm Achieves ‘the impossible’ in six years

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CHAPU Chartered Account­ants (Chapu) from its incep­tion in 2018 has grown to offices in five provinces, with its site set on fur­ther expan­sion.

Chapu is a 100% black-owned and man­aged com­pany with a young and vibrant team of qual­i­fied experts.

Rhan­gani Mbhal­ati, founder and man­aging dir­ector, says at the core of the com­pany’s growth is an entre­pren­eur­ial mind­set. Since Chapu’s star­ted fully oper­at­ing in March 2018, it has grown its staff com­pli­ment to more than 50 – a remark­able accom­plish­ment. It now has pres­ence in five provinces: Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North West and Free State.

Rhan­gani Mbhal­ati, founder and man­aging dir­ector, says at the core of the com­pany’s growth is an entre­pren­eur­ial mind­set. Since Chapu’s star­ted fully oper­at­ing in March 2018, it has grown its staff com­pli­ment to more than 50 – a remark­able accom­plish­ment. It now has pres­ence in five provinces: Gauteng, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, North West and Free State.

But Chupu is not rest­ing on its laurels and has its sights set on expan­sion to other coun­tries bey­ond Africa.

Mbhal­ati says the busi­ness is in a growth phase as a res­ult of invest­ments made in build­ing the right team that bought into the organ­isa­tion’s vis­ion, com­ple­men­ted by exec­ut­ives who have an entre­pren­eur­ial mind­set.

Mbhal­ati says the busi­ness is in a growth phase as a res­ult of invest­ments made in build­ing the right team that bought into the organ­isa­tion’s vis­ion, com­ple­men­ted by exec­ut­ives who have an entre­pren­eur­ial mind­set.

“However, we are not immune to cur­rent global and national chal­lenges, there­fore we con­tinu­ously relook our core strategy and do risk assess­ment to ensure the firm is always in a good pos­i­tion to sus­tain the oper­a­tions and con­tinue with the growth tra­ject­ory achieved over the last couple of years.”

Mbhal­ati is a Chartered Account­ant (SA) and registered aud­itor with the Inde­pend­ent Reg­u­lat­ory Board for Aud­it­ors. He holds a Bcom degree and Hon­ours (CTA) from the Nel­son Man­dela Uni­versity. He is cur­rently pur­su­ing Mphil in Devel­op­ment Fin­ance at Stel­len­bosch Busi­ness School.

Mbhal­ati is a Chartered Account­ant (SA) and registered aud­itor with the Inde­pend­ent Reg­u­lat­ory Board for Aud­it­ors. He holds a Bcom degree and Hon­ours (CTA) from the Nel­son Man­dela Uni­versity. He is cur­rently pur­su­ing Mphil in Devel­op­ment Fin­ance at Stel­len­bosch Busi­ness School.

He gained pub­lic sec­tor expos­ure dur­ing the time he spent as audit qual­ity con­trol spe­cial­ist at the Aud­itor-gen­eral of South Africa and as man­aging dir­ector of MNB Chartered Account­ants. He also boasts inter­na­tional exper­i­ence gained dur­ing his second­ment to PWC in the US where he worked as a senior asso­ciate in assur­ance ser­vices.

He gained pub­lic sec­tor expos­ure dur­ing the time he spent as audit qual­ity con­trol spe­cial­ist at the Aud­itor-gen­eral of South Africa and as man­aging dir­ector of MNB Chartered Account­ants. He also boasts inter­na­tional exper­i­ence gained dur­ing his second­ment to PWC in the US where he worked as a senior asso­ciate in assur­ance ser­vices.

That’s not all. Mbhal­ati is also a qual­i­fied assessor with the South African Insti­tute of Chartered Account­ants and is involved in a num­ber of com­munity projects aimed at improv­ing the stand­ard of edu­ca­tion in rural com­munit­ies. He also serves on boards and audit com­mit­tees as part of giv­ing back to the com­munity.

Mbhal­ati says as a com­pany, they have had to make sound key busi­ness adjust­ments in the past by dis­con­tinu­ing some of the ser­vices that were not bring­ing the desired return on invest­ment.

This has allowed Chapu to take les­sons and go back to the draw­ing board to ensure it put in the right invest­ment and resources to get it right in the future.

This has allowed Chapu to take les­sons and go back to the draw­ing board to ensure it put in the right invest­ment and resources to get it right in the future.

Chapu says one of its core busi­ness strategies is centred on invest­ing in people who buy into its vis­ion. Mbhal­ati says the com­pany has inves­ted heav­ily in upskilling and train­ing their staff to ensure they con­tinu­ously improve the qual­ity of work they provide to their cli­ents and stake­hold­ers.

“We are aware that change is inev­it­able, there­fore we have posi­tioned our firm to be agile and always ready to adapt to the changes in pro­fes­sional stand­ards, tech­nical require­ments and tech­no­logy so we remain rel­ev­ant in the mar­ket,” Mbhal­ati said.

However, the biggest chal­lenge facing South Africa’s account­ing and audit­ing sec­tor cur­rently is the short­age of registered aud­it­ors, due to emig­ra­tion. Chartered account­ants are in demand glob­ally and remote work­ing has presen­ted more oppor­tun­it­ies for them to take global oppor­tun­it­ies, Mbhal­ati explained.

However, the biggest chal­lenge facing South Africa’s account­ing and audit­ing sec­tor cur­rently is the short­age of registered aud­it­ors, due to emig­ra­tion. Chartered account­ants are in demand glob­ally and remote work­ing has presen­ted more oppor­tun­it­ies for them to take global oppor­tun­it­ies, Mbhal­ati explained.

Ncumisa Mkun­qana, the firm’s head for the Qual­ity Assur­ance busi­ness unit, says to solve this prob­lem, the coun­try must deal with the prob­lem of too many learners who fail to pass maths sat­is­fact­or­ily at Grade 12.

Ncumisa Mkun­qana, the firm’s head for the Qual­ity Assur­ance busi­ness unit, says to solve this prob­lem, the coun­try must deal with the prob­lem of too many learners who fail to pass maths sat­is­fact­or­ily at Grade 12.

The firm trades in a sec­tor has been rocked by cor­rup­tion and com­pla­cency alleg­a­tions due to sec­tor mul­tina­tional com­pan­ies either being at the heart of cor­rupt prac­tices or simply look­ing away when there are irreg­u­lar­it­ies.

Chapu says the key val­ues that under­pins their prac­tice are eth­ics, integ­rity and account­ab­il­ity.

Credit: Press Reader