Durban - Bartenders, welders, petrol attendants and labourers are among the hopefuls who want to succeed Auditor-General Terence Nombembe when he leaves in a few months.
A Master’s degree and years of auditing and accounting experience may be listed as minimum requirements for the next auditor-general, but this didn’t stop more than 80 people from applying for one of the government’s top jobs.
A receptionist and a security guard with matric also threw their names into the hat and theirs were among the 90 CVs received by the parliamentary ad hoc committee screening applicants for the post of auditor-general.
Nombembe’s term of office expires at the end of November.
The committee has shortlisted six people who are to be interviewed next Wednesday.
Nombembe’s deputy, Kimi Makwetu, is at the top of the list.
In his letter of application, Makwetu said not only did his accounting and auditing background stand him in good stead, but he had “invested time and effort in understanding the operations and governance structures in all three spheres of government”.
The other shortlisted candidates are the auditor-general’s manager for auditing, Zaitun Bee Gaffair Shaik; Lily Zondo, a general manager at MTN; SAA’s chief financial officer, Kaushik Patel; Eastern Cape Treasury chief director Josephine Naicker; and Avhashoni Ramikosi, a senior auditor at PwC.
Advocate Nonkosi Cetshwayo, who heads the Office on Institutions Supporting Democracy in the National Assembly, said the 90 applicants had to be divided into an “A list” and a “B list”.
“The A list is the reflection of all the CVs received, but in a summarised version. If you look at them you will see we received CVs from a whole lot of people ranging from matrics, labourers, welders and the like,” Cetshwayo said.
“As the secretariat we then looked at the list with an attempt to assist and facilitate the shortlisting by the members and we came up with the B list, which is made up of six candidates.”
Committee chairman Thaba Mufamadi said each applicant had applied in their individual capacity. No organisations had nominated people.
The Mercury