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Prof Dave Lubbe honoured with Lifetime Achievement Award

17 July 2019 | Story Valentino Ndaba

The highest body of professional academic accountants in the country, the Southern African Accounting Association (SAAA), recently honoured Prof Dave Lubbe with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award at a gala dinner at Emperors Palace in Johannesburg. Prof Lubbe is a Research Associate and an Emeritus Professor at the School of Accountancy at the University of the Free State (UFS).

The SAAA honoured him “for his distinguished service and valuable contribution to accounting education in South Africa”. He was recognised for his contributions to audit committees in the private and public sectors, environmental accounting and auditing, the philosophy of auditing, audit risk and the expectation gap between the audit profession and users of financial information.

A friend of firsts

Prof Lubbe was the first person to attain a doctorate in Auditing in South Africa, the first to author an Afrikaans auditing handbook, the first South African recipient of the Ernst & Young Outstanding Accounting Research Award in 2002 and the first Chartered Accountant to be awarded the Stals Prize for Economic and Management Sciences by the South African Academy for Science and Arts in 2007.

His astounding track record also earned him the university’s 2018 Executive Management Award at the 36th Chancellor’s Distinguished Alumni Awards. Not only is he a former master’s student at the university, but he also went on to serve as a senior lecturer for 41 years.

Called to serve

In his lifetime, Prof Lubbe has answered the call to serve as a management consultant, committee member, a forensic accountant, and an assessor to high court fraud cases.

Beyond the field of accounting

His achievements span beyond the accounting field. Not only has Prof Lubbe completed all of South Africa’s well-known ultramarathons, he holds a black belt in karate. His love for art on the other hand, has seen him win national poetry competitions and establishing himself as a lyricist.

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“Deploy your education and not connections,” Chancellor tells graduates

2012-05-16

Qwaqwa Autumn Graduation
Photo: Thabo Kessah
16 May 2012

Our Qwaqwa Campus conferred 424 degrees, diplomas and certificates at this year’s autumn graduation ceremony held on 12 May 2012.

Amongst the degrees conferred were two doctorates in Polymer Science, two Master’s of Arts in Geography and African Languages, respectively, five Master’s of Science degrees in Physics (3) and Polymer Science (2) and 37 honours degrees in Education, Zoology, Physics, Botany and Polymer Science.

In their congratulatory messages, both the Vice-Rector: Institutional Affairs, Prof. Teuns Verschoor, and the Chancellor, Dr Khotso Mokhele, challenged the graduates to start focusing their attention beyond their graduation on what they both referred to as “the real world”.

“Graduation ceremonies are a fantastic event, but you must never lose sight of appreciating the support given by those around you,” said Dr Mokhele.

“This hall was full of shouting and yes, you must bask in that glory, knowing that you have achieved part of your goals. Yes, this is your moment, so shine. You deserve it. You have earned it.”

“However, this noise also means you must go out there and face the real world. You are graduating in a model country on how people can reconcile, despite their painful and divided past. You deserve all the accolades, but that model country is disappearing before your eyes. How can you mess up what Mandela, Biko, Sobukwe, Nardine Gordimer lived and fought for? How can you mess up such a good thing?” Dr Mokhele asked of an attentive audience that included proud parents and siblings, as well as educators and learners from the Thabo Mofutsanyana District.

“Go out there and deploy your education and not your connections, as these are embedded in corruption. Go out there and help get rid of the patronage system where hard-workers are more likely to be constructively dismissed as they stand in the way of those with corrupt tendencies. Save this country from becoming another Zimbabwe. Let us do whatever it takes to save this country. Let these matriculants who are here today want to walk that red carpet with pride in the next few years,”,said Dr Mokhele.

Dignitaries in attendance included the former Chief Minister of the former Qwaqwa homeland, Dr T K Mopeli; the Executive Mayor of the Dihlabeng Local Municipality, Councillor Tjhetane Mofokeng; Dr SWF Moloi (Thabo Mofutsanyana Education District) and representatives from various government departments.

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