Meet The Blogger

Who is Nasiphi Racaza?

Questions like can you tell us about yourself often confuse me. I fail to understand where to begin, where to end and what to include exactly. Now being given the platform to do so I believe it is now that I can fully tell people about who am I.

I was born in the Western Cape by Nokwakha Racaza and Khayalethu Racaza. I have three siblings, one boy and two girls, I am the second born. When I was six years old my parents sent me and my older sister to the Eastern Cape to live with our paternal grandmother, I started my primary school there. Living without my parents taught me a lot of things, it taught me to be independent at a very young age, to be able to do things myself and learn to make the best of every situation life throws at you. I would say that that is where I developed the love of the business side as there was a tuck shop at home. I learnt to count money and deal with stock taking at a young age and loved doing it. I would say that helped me become the person that I am as that is where my love for numbers and business side developed. There were times where I would cry myself to sleep because I missed my parents so much. We would visit them during June holidays but that made the heartache of not seeing them more hurting. In grade 1 I fell ill, when my aunts came to visit us they had noticed and took me back to Cape Town, to my parents. Coming to Cape Town, I had received the help that I needed and began treatment. The next following year I went back to the Eastern Cape and had to repeat grade 1, that was hard as my peers were all in grade 2 and I had to make new friends in my class. At the end of grade 3 we were told that we were going to Cape Town and study there, that was the happiest day of my life.

They say each one of us is bound to experience change in their lives one way or the other. Moving to Cape Town was the best change that I had been longing for ever since I moved to the Eastern Cape. The challenge was that I had to start new friends, learn new people and must let people in. I have never been the one to start a conversation in my life, I was the shy kid at the back of the class. Moving to Cape Town was a way for me to change that, I wanted to be like other kids and be carefree and just be a kid who did not wonder on how some of the things were made. On my first day at school I met friends, whom I loved and were exactly what I wanted to be around with. At an early age, I developed love for literature, I loved reading that I would always be at that library burying my face in a book and being lost in the fictional world. The love for reading is something that grew with me, with it came the love for words. Writing became a thing for me, where I would write just about anything. My favourite authors, amongst others, are Colleen Hoover, Anna Todd, Nicholas Sparks and Thomas Hardy. This love for reading only alienated me from the other kids, I saw how different I was. I was the kid who couldn’t wait to get home just so I can finish a book or start a new one, but embraced those differences.

There came a journey so frightening I was dreading starting it, high school. This is where I found myself, discovered the type of person I am and my capabilities. Where I met my friends, who have now turned to be my family. High school came and I graduated how I had hoped to and had made everyone in my life, including me, proud. Going to University I already knew what I wanted to do, had always known, and that time had come. There also came challenges of making friends and being out there, I believe I am still adjusting, as late in a year as it is, but I am still finding my feet in terms of making friends. I would say I am now in a place where I am content with just only being me, and having my books of course. All I know is that there is something big waiting for me in the outside world, so I owe it to myself to do my best in going where I have always dreamt of being in. The journey may not be all merry and easy, but knowing myself, I will get there no matter how long or hard it takes.

Where I see myself in the future, my goals and action steps

What do you want to be when you grow up? I believe as children we were all asked this question, of course one would always go for the obvious, the ones we were all familiar with, a doctor, nurse or a teacher.

In the early years of grade 9 I only knew that I wanted to be a business woman. I wanted to make a change in life, like doctors, but in my own way, one that I love. I believe that choosing something you love doing as your career makes you more willing to do your job and be good at it too. In 10 years’ time, I see myself owning a small accounting firm, and having myself being a qualified CA(SA). There are many steps (RSM, 2017) one needs to follow for this qualification and the reading leading to this is not an easy one, many qualified CA(SA) have said so themselves. My short-term goal towards this qualification would be first to acquire as many knowledge and highest grades as I can, switch to the Bcom Accounting degree from the Bcom one, and go through to my second year. This can only be achieved through dedication, endurance, hard work and love for what I am studying. To make sure I learn as much as I can and utilise my learning experience in a way where I can better my grades, I would have to start with attending lecturers, doing assignment, studying for tests and make sure that I never fall behind.  

One’s words are only as good as they are practised. My medium goal would be to stay true to my goals, and make sure I do not stray away from them and better myself in every way I can. This is the only way that can ensure I make it to my third year and graduate with grades that can get me to honours levels. After completing my degree, I have a responsibility to join a financial institution with who I have a contract with. With that, during the time that I am fulfilling my obligation, I would also take steps towards my long-term goal. This means I would be enrolled to a University in completing my honours and staying dedicated to the goal I am working towards on. Keeping myself focused, it is then I would be able to do well and ensure good grades. Whilst still at the firm, I would take the necessary steps towards being a CA(SA). This includes the two board exams one must write. Keeping to the steps I followed for my short-term goal, and the necessary training, I would finally be a qualified CA(SA). This does not stop there I want to be able to create job opportunities and help in every way I can. Opening an accounting firm would probably take more years, but that is where I want to be and that is where I am intending on being.

How Information Systems can help me reach my goals

The world as we know it is changing rapidly, one would argue if it is a detriment or changing for the good. Information systems is a major key to reaching my intended goals.

Information system is the tool I need to get information and knowledge to make informed decisions in my daily student life. To reach my short-term goal, I need to always be alert of new chapters to study for, new assignments and announcement. This is all possible with the aid of Ikamva, which is a communication tool between students and lecturers at UWC. Without this, we would not know if there is any change made to a slide, or if we need to prepare for a next lecturer if we were not told in the last lecture. With information systems, I can be able to receive emails if there is anything I should know about, having the pleasure of being able to reply in an instant if needs be. I can be able to download slides from the web and print them using a hardware device which is a printer, and scan them if there is a need, using an input device which is a scanner. With these tools, I would be able to complete all my steps and a be a few steps close to becoming a CA(SA).

How Information Systems will aid me in becoming a CS(SA)

An accounting student would know that you need information systems as a module in completing your degree. Be it in any institution, this is carried out, and I believe there is a reason for that.

With the times changing, we now use programs to avoid any errors in the accounting profession. We have a programme which is pastel, what pastel does is to do what an accounting student does in a book and makes it easier to load into a system. Pastel calculates stocks, creditors, debtors and all the accounting statements with minimum errors, as an information student would tell you, about the GIGO principle (garbage in, garbage out). We can do work times more than the human body can in a less period. This helps with getting thing done so that the company could make informed decisions based on the information presented to them. The business world takes up a lot of time and one would find themselves being in many places. With information systems, we can now conduct board meetings through video conferencing. This helps to see the people you are talking with and can reply at the same time, which has saved money for flying every time and the time it takes to fly to that place. We now have gadgets that can organise diaries for us, and to remind us if we had forgotten, minimising missing important events. This shows that in this profession information systems plays a key role and will continue to do so as times change.