The South African Chapter of global professional association and learning organisation ISACA began its 2025 annual conference in Pretoria yesterday by signing an MOU with the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA), formalising a long-standing industry relationship.
The organisations said the MOU will serve to foster innovation, build capacity and support external auditing in SA.
It is another significant industry collaboration for ISACA SA, after the organisation signed an MOU in April this year with the Chartered Institute of Government Finance, Audit & Risk Officers.
Imre Nagy, CEO at IRBA, described the collaboration as a pivotal moment for the auditing profession, as auditors deal with the complexity of modern systems amid an increasing need for cyber security expertise and a deep understanding of digital risk.
“This collaboration is not just timely, it is essential. It ensures that audit teams are equipped to navigate the digital landscape with integrity, confidence and capability. This is a declaration of commitment to industry excellence and progress,” said Nagy.
Kenneth Palliam, president of ISACA SA, expounded on the theme of the conference ‘to innovate, captivate and elevate’ – saying technologies like edge computing, blockchain and AI continue to reshape industries like external auditing.
“Companies must embrace these technologies to remain competitive and unlock new opportunities,” said Palliam, adding that innovation and technology captivate users, impact experiences and elevate business outcomes.
Risk professionals asked to see around corners
Risk and compliance expert Muhammad Haffejee added that the market today is characterised by massive convergence between global expectations and local headaches.
Global pressures include ESG expectations, cyber risk and AI disruptions, with stakeholders who demand resilience and transparency.
“Boards want climate reports, attackers want your data and ChatGPT wants your job – all in the same week,” Haffejee said. Local headaches include load-shedding, greylisting, digital inequality and the public-private trust deficit, he added.
“We're building risk dashboards – while the WiFi’s down, the lights are off and we’re still explaining to exco what greylisting means. We’ve got more frameworks than we have people who can implement them.”
Haffejee referred to the evolving role of risk professionals, whose role has shifted from being spectators to strategists.
“The traditional role was focused on ticking boxes instead of asking if these boxes even mattered. Our role was to ensure rules were followed, even when they slowed innovation… findings were clear, impact wasn’t,” said Haffejee. It's time for the auditing and risk management profession to “stop ticking boxes and start connecting the dots”, he added.
Today's expectations are that risk professionals are expected to “see around corners and shape the organisation’s direction”, Haffejee continued. “Our job is to support transformation, not stand in its way. We turn technical risk language into business impact executives can act on.”
Innovation at pace
Keynote presenter Josephine Naicker, certified cloud security professional and founder of AI, cloud and cyber security firm CyberCloud-AI, said: “We are being led by algorithms whether we like it or not. The pace of innovation has never been faster; AI and automation tomorrow will feel faster and will be faster. So the rate of change is compounding. This will be the slowest that technology will ever be in our lifetime… future-proofing businesses is now about survival.”
Naicker reflected on research by Statista, WEF Future of Jobs 2023 & 2025, McKinsey AI Adoption 2024 and Deloitte, saying 79% of executives believe AI will transform their industry in the next three years.
To illustrate the pace of change and innovation, Naicker said Facebook emerged in the 2000s and reached 100 million subscribers in 10 months. In 2022, ChatGPT hit the scene and reached the same target in five days.
In terms of acceleration of change and the percentage of jobs that will change by 2030, the 2023 estimate was 44% and the 2025 update is 39%.
The top emerging roles are big data specialists, fintech engineers, AI and ML specialists, software and applications developers, and security management specialists.
Naicker added that 20% of people used AI in business in 2018, and this escalated to over 80% in 2024.
The top five technology trends driving business transformation between 2025 and 2030 are AI and information processing technologies; robots and autonomous systems; energy generation, storage and distribution; new materials and composites; and semiconductors and computing technologies.
Share