SA Journal of Accounting Research formerly De Ratione is an accredited, national academic journal which is published annually by the Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors (IRBA), the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) and the Southern African Accounting Association (SAAA). Chairman Colin McClelland - Petroleum industry consultant Editor Enrico Uliana - University of Cape Town Editorial Board Charl Kocks – Ratings Afrika Minga Negash – Metropolitan State College of Denver and University of the Witwatersrand Wiseman Nkuhlu – Director of companies Jeffrey Rowlands - Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and Southern African Accounting Association Lesley Stainbank - University of KwaZulu-Natal Graham Terry – The South African Institute of Chartered Accountants Sandy van Esch – Independent Regulatory Board for Auditors Marianne van Staden – University of South Africa and Southern African Accounting Association Annual subscription - R70.00 including VAT. Payment must accompany all orders Enquiries and orders: SA Journal of Accounting Research, PO Box 59873, KENGRAY 2100 Tel: (011) 621 6600 Fax: (011) 622 5543 e-mail: sajar@saica.co.za Website: www.sajar.co.za ISSN: 1029-1954 Copyright All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, including electronic, mechanical, photographic, magnetic or other means, without the prior written permission of the publishers. The object of SAJAR is, however, to promote the wide dissemination of the results of research and other scholarly inquiries into the broad field of accounting. Permission is, therefore, hereby granted to reproduce any of the contents of SAJAR for use in courses of instruction provided the source and SAJAR’s copyright are indicated in such reproductions.