While completing her studies in commerce at the University of Cape Town, Tsakani Maluleke came to realise that very few black women have qualified as chartered accountants and this propelled her to take on the mission of improving the situation in the accountancy industry.

She certainly achieved this — by becoming the first woman to be appointed as the deputy auditor-general in the organisation’s 107 years of existence.

Maluleke spent her early years in Soshanguve and moved to Johannesburg with her parents when she was in her teens. She then went on to complete her bachelor of commerce and honours. Even though she had initially wanted to become a lawyer, it was her father who advised her that she would be better off with a commerce background, which is how she ended up qualifying as a chartered accountant.

Maluleke has worked for PwC, WorldWide Capital, the Eastern Cape Development Corporation and the Energy and Water seta, where she was appointed as an administrator after the seta was put under administration.

She joined the AGSA as the national leader for audit services reporting to the then auditor-general and, after a few years, she became the deputy auditor-general.

“It’s a big opportunity that I celebrate, but a responsibility that I also take seriously. Not just for my own personal growth and achievement but for the sake and credibility of the institution,” she says. “For other women too, who need to see women occupying these roles so that they can believe that they can do it. I have the responsibility of proving wrong all those people who think that women can’t occupy such roles and excel at them.”

Maluleke notes that her family instilled in her a strong desire to make a difference in one’s immediate surroundings, and insisted that she would make moves and give back to society even though she wasn’t occupying a public office, because that’s how she was raised.

All of us as members of our society, especially those of us occupying positions of power and privilege, whether in government or the private sector, have a responsibility to give back to our society. We must have the interests of our society in whatever positions we choose or find ourselves in.