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17 August 2021 | Story Dr Cindé Greyling | Photo Supplied
Marisna Nel, Director: Governance and Reporting in the Department of Finance.
Marisna Nel is the Director: Governance and Reporting in the Department of Finance at the University of the Free State. Although her overall responsibility relates mainly to governance and financial reporting, it also includes the management of the following divisions within the Department of Finance:  Salaries; Accounts Payable; General Reporting; Travel and Expense Claims; and Financial Systems.

What is the best thing about your job?
The people. I am proud to say I’m surrounded by loyal, hardworking colleagues who will never shy away from walking the extra mile. They never stop to amaze or inspire me. 

What is the best and worst decision you have ever made?
One of my better decisions was to work abroad in both the USA and Ireland for a period of three years post articles. I will always be grateful for the life lessons learnt and professional experienced gained. However great these opportunities were, my ‘best’ decision was to return to South Africa. I truly believe that, irrespective of all the challenges we face in South Africa, we are resilient people with the ability to inspire and influence change. I also met the love of my life back home and am the proud mother of two boys. I do not recall a specific decision that I regret. My life journey thus far formed and made me the person I am today, and therefore I would not want it any other way.

What was/is the biggest challenge of your career?
Balancing my professional career with being a wife and mom. 

What does the word woman, mean to you?
Being a mom, wife, friend, daughter, sister, and colleague all in one. I believe that each of these roles contributes to our growth and internal well-being, and that is what makes women special.

Which woman inspires you, and why?
I do not have a specific role model, but rather some specific qualities that I admire. The ability to stay true to your beliefs. Sometimes, it means taking the difficult route to be able to do the right thing and having the courage to do it.

What advice would you give to the 15-year-old you?
Live and enjoy every moment. Do not focus so much on the future that you forget to enjoy the moment.

What is the one self-care thing that you do? 
Spending time with my family in nature – camping is our family thing. It helps me to refocus on what really matters when life wants to run away with me.

What makes you a woman of quality, impact, and care?
My values and strong ethics make me who I am – helping me to make fair decisions consistently and focus on the true North in times of difficulty. I believe the way to build trust is by always being honest. This is what I try to live by and also teach my children. The last value I hold dear is what my father has always emphasised through his entire life – humility. We are all part of a bigger picture and each one has an important role to play.
 
I cannot live without … coffee and my family. 
My secret weapon is … my ability to laugh at myself. 
I always have … faith. 
I will never … parachute.
I hope … to someday be able to say that I’m done with my to-do list.

News Archive

IRSJ marks five years of championing social justice
2016-08-12

Description: IRSJ 5 year Tags: IRSJ 5 year

Members of the Advisory Board of the IRSJ,
Prof Michalinos Zembylas (Open University
of Cyprus), Prof Shirley Anne Tate (Leeds
University, England), and Prof Relebohile
Moletsane (University of KwaZulu-Natal),
listen to a speaker on the programme.
 Photo: Lihlumelo Toyana

The Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice (IRSJ) marked its fifth anniversary with a function on 27 July 2016 in the Reitz Hall of the Centenary Complex on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS). Earlier that day, the Advisory Board of the IRSJ, chaired by Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the UFS, hosted their annual meeting.

A new book was also launched, co-authored by JC van der Merwe, Deputy-Director at the IRSJ and Dionne van Reenen, researcher and PhD candidate at the IRSJ. It is entitled Transformation and Legitimation in Post-apartheid Universities: Reading Discourses from ‘Reitz’. The function featured not only reflections on the IRSJ, but a four-member panel discussion of the book and higher education in 2016.

The IRSJ came into being officially at the UFS in January 2011. Prof André Keet, Director of the IRSJ, said: “With a flexibility and trust not easily found in the higher education sector, the university management gave us the latitude and support to fashion an outfit that responds to social life within and outside the borders of the university, locally and globally.”

The IRSJ has not hesitated to be bold and
courageous in reforming ... traditional policies."

 

Prof Jansen went on to mention three things he finds appealing about the IRSJ: “Thanks to Prof Keet and his team’s vision and understanding of how important it is for students to have a space in which they can learn how to be, learn how to think, and learn how to contribute, the IRSJ has become a place where students can learn about things that they might not learn in the classroom. Second, it created, for the first time, a space where members of the LGBTIQ community could gather in one place. And third, it speaks to the intellectual life of the university, as evidenced by the research and publications produced over the past few years.”

Prof Jansen added: “The IRSJ will only be successful to the extent that we have safe spaces, courageous spaces, in which not only black students talk to themselves, but where black and white students talk together about their difficulties. If you’re entangled, you can’t get out of [that] unless you speak to the other person.”

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Prof Michalinos Zembylas of the Open University of Cyprus and member of the Advisory Board, said of the IRSJ: “The works produced by the institute in this short time have been valuable to this community and beyond, because they recognise the complexities of education, ... while pushing the boundaries of how to translate theoretical discussions into practical, everyday conditions. ... For example, the IRSJ has not hesitated to be bold and courageous in reforming some traditional policies in this university—remnants of an ambivalent past that reproduced inequality and disadvantage.

In reflecting on how the IRSJ came into being during her opening remarks, Dr Lis Lange, Vice-Rector: Academic at the UFS, said that it has always been “dedicated to transformation.” She added that it “gathered the energy and creativity of some of our most promising student leaders.” She concluded: “For me, the greatest success of the Institute, besides publications and local and international networks, is the fact that something that started in the margins is being asked today to come closer to the centre, to play a larger role in the structural transformation of the university.”

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