On 5 May 2017, Ms Juanita Venter, the subject-responsible lecturer for the BCom Taxation Honours group, and the academic trainees in the Department of Taxation Mses Noma Bafana, Thelma Mudluli, Corlia Faurie, Jade Els and the 2017 Taxation honours students attended the South African Institute of Tax Practitioners (SAIT) Student Conference in Johannesburg.

It was a day filled with competitions, networking opportunities and a team challenge. The team challenge included an extensive case study on S24J. This section is in the Income Tax Act and it deals with interest – when it can be included into income or deducted from income when calculating total taxable income. The firms that attended, namely KPMG, EY, Deloitte, and ENSafrca, also set questions to the teams. The competition was won by the Department’s academic trainees and one of their prizes includes a lunch with ENSafrica, which will take place within the next month.

After winning the competition, Noma said: “I am very grateful to my team and the way we worked so well together, it is really such a great opportunity to have won this competition. My team and I are looking forward to the lunch with ENS, I think it’s going to be an amazing networking opportunity.”

The SAIT Student Conference always provides great networking and learning opportunities. Advice was given on where, when and how students can apply for jobs, and once they get the job, how they can thrive at this marvellous opportunity.

Congratulations to the academic trainees, you made us proud!