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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

Human trafficking research demystifies juju practices
2017-10-28



Description: Human trafficking research  Tags: Human trafficking research

Human trafficking is a practice that exists
in many countries all over the world and
whose victims are sold as commodities
into a life of servitude and sex slavery.
Photo: iStock

Human trafficking is a complex crime that transcends cultural, religious and geographical barriers. It is a practice that exists in many countries all over the world and whose victims are sold as commodities into a life of servitude and sex slavery. 

Prof Beatri Kruger, Research Associate at the Free State Centre for Human Rights (FSCHR) at the UFS, has been exploring research related to the use of “juju” rituals used by perpetrators of human trafficking in South Africa and on the African continent. She joined the Centre for Human Rights in 2017, and was previously a law lecturer at the UFS Faculty of Law

She recently co-wrote Exploring juju and human trafficking: towards a demystified perspective and response in the South African Review of Sociology, alongside Marcel van der Watt of the Department of Police Practice at the University of South Africa (Unisa). 

The research explores juju and forms of witchcraft as a phenomenon, while illuminating some of the multilayered complexities associated with its use as a control mechanism. 

Prof Kruger and Van der Watt’s work is a step towards understanding how the practice of juju brings on a more complicated aspect of trafficking in persons in South Africa and how agencies working to combat this crime can understand it and be better equipped to stop the crime and assist victims. 

The findings of the research confirmed the use of juju as a combination of arcane methods used by Nigerian traffickers as a control measure. The term resonates with most participants, but included interchangeable references to witchcraft, voodoo, muti, black magic and curses. The victims of these rituals included women of black, coloured and Nigerian descent in South Africa. 

Nigerian traffickers operating in and between Nigeria, South Africa and European countries are steadily gaining momentum; it will take a concerted effort for multiple countries involved to take steps within their legal frameworks as well as academic spaces to come together to combat the crime cross-continentally.

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