EDITORIAL: Who to save if KPMG sinks...
The problem isn’t just the loss of clients — it’s also the flood of skilled staff leaving
There is a real risk that auditing firm KPMG could collapse in SA, so devastating has been the loss of so many of its most lucrative clients. First, it was auditor-general Kimi Makwetu who axed KPMG after giving it "ample time" to explain various governance problems. Then, last week, Barclays Africa ditched it too, snatching away about R138m in revenue from the auditing firm. Property company Redefine was next, followed by Sibanye-Stillwater, and it is understood that a few others are on the verge of following suit, which is thoroughly deserved. But the problem isn’t just the loss of clients — it’s also the flood of skilled staff leaving. Executives at other auditing firms say CVs of senior KPMG partners are sent to them, unsolicited. The final straw centred around revelations last month that senior KPMG officials responsible for VBS Mutual Bank, the entity that lent R7.8m to Jacob Zuma to repay his Nkandla debt, had loans with VBS that they’d hidden, compromising their independence...
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