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29 August 2019 | Story Valentino Ndaba
Michelle de Lange
Michelle de Lange was placed fourth in the world in the Chartered Global Management Accountant exams.

A letter from the Vice-President of Examinations at the Association for International Certified Professional Accountants, Stephen Flatman, reads: “The Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) Examination Board has determined the highest achievers at this level and I am pleased to inform you that you have obtained fourth position in the world for the May 2019 Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) Gateway Exam.” The letter was addressed to Michelle de Lange, lecturer at the University of the Free State’s (UFS) School of Accountancy.

This achievement in the tough Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) examination is a step in the right direction for De Lange who has been tasked with assisting in coordinating and presenting a new Financial Management qualification next year. “I want to be somewhere where I can make a difference, change a life, plant a dream in someone’s heart and help guide our future generations,” says De Lange. 

Taking local and global footsteps

Prof Frans Prinsloo, Director at the UFS School of Accountancy, has only praise for De Lange and says he looks forward to her influencing the climate and culture of academics. “It is noteworthy that we will be offering the BCom Honours in Financial Management in 2020 and all course content will be aligned to the CIMA Management Level outcomes in order to prepare students to write this exam next November. De Lange will be one of the lecturers on this programme,” Prof Prinsloo says. 

For the love of Accounting

“When I eventually qualified and started working as a financial manager of a large company in Bloemfontein, I realised just how much I loved the field of management accounting – blending leadership, cost and management accounting and strategic decision-making,” says De Lange. 
Although her passion for the field of accounting can be traced back to high school, it was the corporate world that re-ignited the strong spark. This passion has undoubtedly contributed to her international acclaim.

News Archive

#Women’sMonth: Men should help change narrative on violence against women – Prof Solomon
2017-08-23

 Description: Issues affecting women Tags: Prof Hussein Solomon, Department of Political Studies, violence against women, Gender and Sexual Equity Office, Women’s Month, Embrace a Sister, Boko Haram 

The panellists at a discussion on Issues
Affecting Women
at the UFS Sasol library were
Zane Thela, Head of the Gender and Sexual
Equity Office Programme, Pumla Mgobhozi, founding
member of Embrace a Sister, and
Prof Prof Hussein Solomon, Senior Professor in the
Department of Political Studies.
From the left, are: Thela, Mgobhozi, Prof Solomon,
and Betsy Eister, Director: Library and
Information Services.
Photo: Jóhann Thormählen

The fight to eradicate violence against women is one which men should be involved in. According to Prof Hussein Solomon, Senior Professor in the Department of Political Studies at the University of the Free State (UFS), men have to help change the narrative of physical abuse and sexual violence which they perpetrate against women and children.
“Let them (men who might be offended by the #men are trash) reject violent masculinities, and in the process let them redefine what being a man is about. Let fathers teach their sons that no means no.”

Panel discussion on Issues Affecting Women
Prof Solomon was part of a panel discussion on Issues Affecting Women, organised by the UFS library, in collaboration with the Gender and Sexual Equity Office and Embrace a Sister, as part of Women’s Month in the UFS Sasol library on 3 August 2017.
The other panellists were Zane Thela, Head of the Gender and Sexual Equity Office Programme at the UFS, and Pumla Mgobhozi, founding member of Embrace a Sister. Prof Solomon’s book Understanding Boko Haram, focusing on the kidnapping of 200 young women in Nigeria was also launched.

Don’t accept things as they are
Prof Solomon says that responses by the SA government have no credibility and a lot more could be done. “What is clear is that outrage alone will not end this violence.”
Even at SA universities there are many examples of how women are mistreated. “We need to ask: What more can we do as a university to assist these (female) students.”

According to Thela, it is sad that these issues are only talked about seasonally (like during Women’s Month).
Thela says people should raise their children differently in order to change the narrative. “Then men won’t think they have to prove themselves to women.”
And we shouldn’t accept things as they are: “The most dangerous statement in society is to say: ‘It has always been done this way."

Role of women in their fate
Mgobhozi emphasised that women have a hand in the way they are being seen and treated in society. She therefore asked: “What is the role of women in making sure that we dismantle patriarchy”.
According to her women, especially black women, should dismantle the status quo. She added that cultures and parents often influence the way women are seen.
“Women should fight these social problems together,” Mgobhozi says.

 

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