Inside Saica's fight to restore its credibility

In response to the original article, Saica members and the public expressed consistent frustration to Daily Maverick that disciplinary processes against members of the profession often seemed slow, with penalties lacking a deterrent effect.

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Unfortunately, Saica doesn’t have legal powers and the long lead times required to gather evidence, sometimes requiring applications under the Promotion of Access to Information Act, mean public accountability only arrives after the damage is done. As one member put it: “The public does not want to see a [professional] only being held to account after all the money has been taken from three different state entities.”

Saica’s counter? Progress is being made. “Total cases finalised in 2024 amounted to 1,287 compared with 185 in 2023, reflecting a significant growth of 595.14%.” That's a massive improvement on paper. But it also raises an uncomfortable question: how did the backlog get that bad in the first place?