Basic Education Minister, Ms Siviwe Gwarube, attended an African Women Chartered Accountants (AWCA) event on Education to excellence – partnering for future-ready CAs and panel discussion at Allan Grey at the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront in Cape Town, on 7 March 2026, as part of strengthening the foundations for learning for a STEAM-aligned Accounting pathway. Globally, 8 March marks International Women’s Day (IWD), and the event took place under the 2026 theme for IWD, “Give To Gain”, encouraging a mindset of sharing and collaboration.
AWCA is a NPO that was founded in 2002 around the concept of mutual support and personal development of African Women Chartered Accountants and actively collaborates with the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) to accelerate their professional development and advancement in South Africa. Ms Nomtha Makhosana, AWCA Western Cape Chairperson, welcomed attendees during the opening ceremony.
Minister Siviwe Gwarube participated in a panel discussion, along with Ms Patricia Stock, CA(SA), Chief Executive Officer of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA), the first female CEO in the history of the organisation. The panel discussion was facilitated by Ms Mmabatho Hantise, AWCA Deputy President. The focus areas of the panel discussion were on: Strengthening the foundations to start with the child, not the profession; The Maths fear factor and gender balance; Teachers as pipeline architects; Securing the future of the profession through rebranding a STEAM-aligned Accounting pathway; Positioning Accountants as nation builders; Enhancing access, equity and transformation; and Becoming role models by engaging in mentorship and facilitating structured partnerships between schools and professional bodies.
On strengthening the foundations for learning, Minister Gwarube spoke about the DBE’s Mother Tongue-based Bilingual Education (MTbBE) rollout and the push for reading for meaning and how indigenous languages are being leveraged to build comprehension that later supports Mathematics and Accounting. The Minister was also asked how MTbBE reforms align with incentives to increase the uptake of Mathematics and Accounting, and to expand sustained mother-tongue support into the intermediate phase. Minister Gwarube highlighted the importance of rebuilding the emotional relationship all learners have with Maths, whilst continuing to advance the girl child’s confidence and intentionally re-engaging the boy child, whose disengagement appears to be rising.
Teacher confidence and subject mastery are decisive for gateway subjects. SAICA and partners have supported teacher development programmes with nearly 1,000 teachers engaged, but scaling requires tighter alignment with provincial structures and DBE strategy. Minister Gwarube discussed ways in which the DBE is strengthening teacher subject mastery and classroom confidence in Maths and Accounting and how provinces will be supported to implement consistently. She also indicated how Accounting can be positioned as a gateway, STEM-linked subject. Ethical finance professionals are pivotal to clean audits, credible budgeting, infrastructure delivery, and service-delivery accountability. Rural and township learners are still at risk of falling out of the pipeline before Grade 10 subject choice. Minister Gwarube responded to the question about the targeted strategies (exposure, mentorship, subject guidance, mother-tongue support) that will help rural and township learners stay connected to commerce pathways, including Accounting, indicating how the DBE facilitates structured partnerships between schools and professional bodies to deliver mentorship, role-model visibility and boys’ engagement programmes at scale.