About turn: Dr Sabie Surtee's study suggests transformation in the province may have "stalled and perhaps reversed".

Consultant and director of HERS-SA, Dr Sabie Surtee, revisited her 2009 study, African Professionals in the Western Cape, at a recent UCT seminar.

The study paints a bleak picture of transformation in the province, suggesting that it has "stalled and perhaps reversed". And Surtee's seminar, Transformation Challenges for Organisations based in Cape Town, hosted by the Faculty of Commerce's Transformation Committee, posed more questions than it offered answers.

The study, commissioned by UCT's Development Policy Research Unit, examined 13 Western Cape organisations that together employed 60 000 people in management positions.

It highlighted that the appointment of Africans in top management positions was "minute", and that African women were severely under-represented at top and senior levels.