This article first appeared in IRBA on 09 November 2026.
The long-term sustainability of South Africa’s audit profession will depend on a coordinated response across the audit ecosystem, with greater attention to the attraction, development and retention of auditors, professional formation in the workplace, technological change and the continued ability of the profession to serve the public interest.
This is the position of a new White Paper from the Wiseman Nkuhlu Centre for Innovation, Thought Leadership, and Governance (WNCIG) at the University of Johannesburg (UJ).
The paper, titled Beyond Declining Numbers: Building a Sustainable Audit Profession that Serves Society in the South African Context, is the first step in the research process and brings together the findings of six complementary initial desktop research studies, as well as insights from a stakeholder roundtable involving representatives from across the South African audit environment. Rather than treating declining Registered Auditor numbers as an isolated workforce problem, the research will seek to examine the wider conditions needed for a resilient and sustainable profession.
Prof Ben Marx of UJ says: “The paper deliberately looks beyond the headline numbers; the declining number of Registered Auditors is important, but the numbers are really the starting point of the conversation. The next phase of our research will ask what sits behind the trend and what factors need to be better understood if South Africa is to sustain an audit profession that continues to serve business, the economy and society. What emerges in the initial study is not one simple cause or one simple solution, but a highly interconnected set of challenges.”
The paper starts from the premise that auditing has value beyond the organisations that commission individual audits. Independent assurance contributes to confidence in financial reporting, corporate accountability, and economic governance, meaning that the sustainability of the profession has broad implications for businesses, investors, regulators, government, and society.
Says Imre Nagy, IRBA CEO: “A sustainable, high-quality audit profession is a public-interest imperative. South Africa must continue to develop and retain appropriately skilled, ethical, and experienced auditors to provide the assurance that contributes to confidence in financial reporting and our markets. That is why independent research of this nature matters. It gives all of us across the audit ecosystem an opportunity to look beyond individual issues and develop a better understanding of how these interact.”
The research identifies several interconnected pressures to quantify rather than a single explanation for the decline in Registered Auditors. These include regulatory complexity, changing workforce expectations, technological transformation, economic pressures, professional formation, and challenges in retaining experienced professionals. It consequently argues for a holistic systems approach rather than isolated interventions.
It also highlights an important pipeline dynamic. IRBA Annual Report data reproduced in the paper shows that the number of Registered Auditors stood at 4,359 in 2016 and 3,472 in 2025. Over the same period, the number of Registered Candidate Auditors in the Audit Development Programme increased from 28 in 2016 to 683 in 2025. The researchers caution, however, that candidate numbers do not represent a guaranteed flow through to registration as a Registered Auditor.
A strong theme emerging from the research, which will be a focus of the subsequent research, is that the future of the profession cannot be measured simply in terms of how many people enter it. Retention, mentoring, organisational culture, professional identity, career development, and wellbeing all influence whether skilled people remain in public audit practice and whether sufficient professional capability is carried forward to the next generation.
The paper similarly argues that the development of auditors extends beyond technical competence. Ethics, judgement, professional scepticism, mentoring and the workplace environment all contribute to developing future auditors capable of fulfilling the profession’s public-interest responsibilities.
Bringing these findings together, WNCIG has developed an Audit Profession Sustainability Framework encompassing six interdependent dimensions: public value; professional formation; workforce sustainability; the institutional and regulatory environment; ecosystem collaboration; and renewal and adaptability. Its central proposition is that sustainable improvement will require coordinated action across these areas rather than individual institutions addressing issues in isolation. These dimensions will provide the structure for the next phase of research.
The research also surfaces findings that will require careful consideration by stakeholders across the audit environment. It identifies excessive workloads, long working hours, poor work-life balance, limited career progression, inadequate remuneration and weak mentoring among the factors associated with auditor turnover. It also raises concerns about economic pressures within audit practice, including increasing compliance costs, fee pressure and the resources required to invest in people, technology, and quality management.
Says Marx: “There are a few challenging issues that merit closer examination. Importantly, these factors should not be considered independently of one another. The next step is to deepen the evidence base and better understand their prevalence, significance, and interaction within the broader question of professional sustainability.”
One of the studies proposes that the broader societal value created through auditing is not fully reflected in the current audit fee model and characterises aspects of the audit market as reflecting market failure. There is recognition that strong regulation is essential to audit quality and the protection of the public interest. At the same time, the next phase will gather insights around the potential impact of regulatory complexity, compliance costs, personal liability, and regulatory processes on career choice.
Says Nagy: “Independent unbiased research has a vital role to help the profession examine complex issues from different perspectives. The paper raises questions that deserve careful consideration and further research. For IRBA, the important principle is that discussions about the future sustainability of the profession must remain grounded in evidence while continuing to recognise the fundamental role of audit quality and public-interest protection.”
The paper also highlights the experience of people entering the profession through what it describes as the “hidden curriculum”. It suggests that professional formation is shaped not only by formal education, but also by assessment practices, workplace culture, organisational hierarchies, mentoring and the behaviours modelled by experienced practitioners. It identifies risks where technical performance is emphasised at the expense of professional judgement, ethical reasoning, and professional scepticism, and where negative workplace experiences weaken professional identity and long-term commitment to audit.
Rather than presenting these challenges as discrete problems, the researchers argue that they are interconnected. Persistent professional exit, for example, may reduce mentoring capacity and increase pressure on those who stay, which in turn can affect professional development and the future attractiveness of the profession. Conversely, supportive organisational environments and effective retention can reinforce audit quality, public trust, and the sustainability of the profession.
The paper therefore proposes a national agenda involving regulators, professional bodies, universities and training providers, audit firms, government, and practitioners. Among the priorities identified as potential actions are strengthening collaboration, modernising professional education while reinforcing ethics and judgement, improving retention and mentoring, supporting continuous learning and technological capability, and monitoring the sustainability of the profession over time.
Marx says: “The research questionnaires will also cover the experience of people entering the profession. The intention is to move the conversation from naming concerns towards strengthening the evidence needed to inform future action. The paper should not be regarded as the end of the research process. It provides a foundation and identifies important questions that can now be examined more widely.
“The next phase will broaden the evidence base through questionnaires and statistical analysis, enabling us to evaluate and quantify key themes emerging from the research and better understand their prevalence and significance.”
IRBA and UJ therefore encourage audit firms and their staff, Registered Auditors and candidate auditors, professional bodies, academics, and other stakeholders across the broader audit environment to take part in the next phase of the WNCIG research when questionnaires are circulated.
The Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA) supports the WNCIG initiative and the development of a stronger evidence base but emphasises that the research process is independent of the IRBA and the findings and recommendations are those of the researchers.
Concludes Nagy: “The most useful contribution stakeholders across the profession can make now is to participate in the next phase. Broad participation will help to understand how widely these issues are experienced and their relative significance. This evidence can therefore support better-informed decisions across the audit ecosystem as we collectively work towards a resilient, attractive, and trusted profession that continues to serve the public interest.”
