| (1) | Only a registered auditor may engage in public practice or hold out as an registered auditor in public practice or use the registered auditor description "public accountant", "certified public accountant", "registered accountant and auditor", "accountant and auditor in public practice" or any other designation or description likely to create the impression of being a registered auditor in public practice. |
| (a) | A person who is not registered in terms of this Act may not— |
| (ii) | pretend to be, or in any manner hold or allow himself or herself to be held out as, a person registered in terms of this Act; |
| (iii) | use the name of any registered auditor or any name or title referred to in subsection (I); or |
| (iv) | perform any act indicating or calculated to lead persons to believe that he or she is registered in terms of this Act. |
| (b) | Paragraph (a)(i) may not be construed as prohibiting any individual from performing an audit if such audit are performed in the service of or by order of and under the direction, control, supervision of or in association with a registered auditor entitled to perform the audit identified and who must assume responsibility for any audit so performed. |
| (3) | Nothing in this section prohibits— |
| (a) | any person from using description "internal auditor" or "accountant"; |
| (b) | any member of a not-for-profit club, institution or association from acting as auditor for that club, institution or association if he or she receives no fee or other consideration for such audit; or |
| (c) | the Auditor-General from appointing any person who is not a registered auditor to carry out on his on her behalf any audit which he or she is in terms of the Public Audit Act, 2004 (Act No. 25 of 2004), required to undertake. |
| (4) | Except with the consent of the Regulatory Board, a registered auditor may not knowingly employ— |
| (a) | any person who is no longer registered as a registered auditor as a result of the termination of his or her registration in terms of section 39(1)(c) or the cancellation of his or her registration in terms of section 51B(3)(a)(iv) or (v); or |
| (b) | any person who applied for registration under section 37(3), but whose application the Regulatory Board declined. |
[Section 41(4) substituted by section 13(a) of the Auditing Profession Amendment Act, 2021 (Act No. 5 of 2021), Notice No. 228 of GG44493, dated 26 April 2021]
| (5) | A registered auditor who is not in public practice as an individual practitioner may practise as a member of a firm only if, by virtue of section 40, the firm is itself a registered auditor. |
| (6) | A registered auditor may not— |
| (a) | practise under a firm name or title unless on every letterhead bearing the firm name or title there appears— |
| (i) | the registered auditor’s present first names, or initials, and surname; or |
| (ii) | in the case of a partnership, at least the present first names, or initials, and surnames of the managing partners or, if there are no managing partners, of the active partners or, where such a letterhead is used only by a branch office of the partnership, at least the present first names, or initials, and surnames of the managing partners at that branch office or, if there are no such resident partners, of the partners assigned to that branch office; or |
| (iii) | in the case of a company, the present first names, or initials, and surnames of the directors; |
[Subsection (6)(a)(iii) substituted by section 9(a) of Act No. 2 of 2015]
| (b) | sign any account, statement, report or other document which purports to represent an audit performed by that registered auditor, unless the audit were performed by that registered auditor, under the personal supervision or direction of that registered auditor or by or under the personal supervision or directions of that registered auditor and one or more of the partners, co-directors or co-members of the registered auditor, as the case may be, in accordance with prescribed auditing standards; |
| (c) | perform audits unless adequate risk management practices and procedures are in place; |
| (d) | engage in public practice during any period in respect of which the registered auditor has been disqualified from registration; or |
[Section 41(6)(d) substituted by section 13(b) of the Auditing Profession Amendment Act, 2021 (Act No. 5 of 2021), Notice No. 228 of GG44493, dated 26 April 2021]
| (e) | share any profit derived from performing an audit with a person that is not a registered auditor. |
| (7) | The provisions of subsection (6)(b) do not apply in respect of an audit performed by another registered auditor in a partially completed assignment which the previous registered auditor was unable to complete as a result of death, disability or other unforeseen cause not under the control of the previous registered auditor, and which assignment the successor registered auditor is engaged to complete. |
| (8) | Nothing in subsection (6)(b) prevents any registered auditor from signing the firm name or title under which the registered auditor practises. |
| (9) | [Subsection (9) deleted by section 9(b) of Act No. 2 of 2015] |
| (10) | In order to engage in public practice, a registered auditor must have paid all applicable prescribed fees. |
