• Only two women are in the race to become South Africa's next Auditor-General.
• More than half of those who applied for the post were male.
• Parliament has shortlisted eight candidates for the post.

Only two women are in the running to become South Africa's next Auditor-General (AG) and should one of them succeed, it will be the first time the office is headed by a woman.

Chartered accountants Rachel Kalidass and Tsakani Maluleke are two of eight candidates in the race to replace current AG Kimi Makwetu whose term ends on 30 November.

Parliament's ad-hoc committee tasked with finding a new AG shortlisted the candidates on Tuesday.

Kalidass has worked as CFO of the Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency.

According to her CV, she worked as the financial manager of the Mpumalanga Agricultural Development Cooperation from 2003 to 2007.

Maluleka is the current deputy AG and has worked for several government agencies, and large auditing and investment corporations as well as the Eastern Cape Development Corporation.

Audit

She joined the AG's office as the national leader for audit services after which she became the deputy AG.

A committee report shows of the 71 applications received, more than 50% were from male applicants.

Statistics show 39 were male applicants, while female applicants only accounted for 30.9%, or 22.

The majority of applicants who responded to the advert were between the ages of 20 and 30.

They were followed by applicants who were between the ages of 36 and 45.

Applicants between the ages of 20 and 30, and between 31 and 35 constituted more than half (52.1%) of the 71 applicants.

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This means the majority of applicants, who applied for the position, were youth.

The committee reports show applications were received from people of all walks of life, ranging from a stock packer, cashier up to the CEOs and managing directors.

Majority

"The majority of the applicants were male, of which more than half [52.1 %] were young applicants below the age of 35. Further, the majority of applications received do hold a Bachelor's degree in accounting and or auditing.

"[Of this], only 10 applicants had a Master's degree and above in accounting and auditing; and registered as chartered accountants, which means they met the requirement in terms of qualifications. Importantly, three of those 10 applicants could not meet the requirements in terms of experience," the report said.

"Out of 71 applications received by the committee, only 10 applications met the required experience. Importantly, three of these 10 applicants could not meet the requirement for qualifications because, they hold an Honors degree.

"The 61 applications received fall below the minimum requirements in terms of experience, some do possess irrelevant experience or no experience at all. This includes among others, applicants who have an experience in law, internships, cashiers, stock packers, boilermakers, driver/general worker financial managers in the private sector, quantity surveyor and others," the report read.