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03 September 2021 | Story Dr Nitha Ramnath
Prof Bonang Mohale.


The executive management of the University of the Free State (UFS) and the university community extend heartfelt congratulations to Prof Bonang Mohale on his appointment as President of Business Unity South Africa (BUSA). 

“Prof Mohale’s extensive expertise and experience in leadership roles, contributions to the growth of many multinational companies, and involvement in education and the business sector, will undoubtedly strengthen the ties between various sectors and civil society, and further contribute to the stabilisation and growth of South Africa,” said Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor, in his congratulatory letter to Prof Mohale. 

BUSA’s role in influencing policy and legislative development for inclusive growth and employment, and in building an enabling environment for the creation of a vibrant, diverse, and globally competitive economy that harnesses the economic and human potential in South Africa, is well documented. This potential resides in our higher education institutions in the form of our students, future graduates, and graduates who are the building blocks for the development of South Africa. 

At a time when our country is facing a social and economic crisis, we are confident that BUSA will consider the perspectives across sectors with a view to creating partnerships, collaboration, and co-creation and further play an integral role in our higher education institutions for the benefit of our students. 

“Prof Mohale’s support to the UFS is appreciated, especially his role as Chancellor and his contribution towards our Thought-Leader and Global Citizen programmes, through which important national and global issues are addressed.
 
We wish Prof Mohale every success in his endeavours, particularly as President of BUSA,” said Prof Petersen.

News Archive

‘Your capacity for change is limitless’
2013-09-13

 

Ready for the world - students taking part in the 2013 Leadership for Change programme getting ready to travel to universities in the USA, Europe and Asia.
Photo: Johan Roux
12 September 2013

 “You will change this campus, city, country, continent and the world, because you have the capacity for greatness,” Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of the University of the Free State (UFS), said.

He addressed the 2013 group of first-year students in the Leadership for Change programme at a farewell function before they will leave for universities abroad. The first 104 students from the 2013 total of 144 will depart on 18 September and return on 3 October 2013. The second group of 40 students will be abroad from 11 to 25 January 2014. The students are from the Bloemfontein and Qwaqwa Campuses. They will be accompanied by mentors from the UFS.

The students will visit 17 universities in the USA, Europe and Asia.

The first 71 first-year students in the Leadership for Change programme were sent abroad for two weeks in September 2010 to get intense exposure to the academic, social, cultural and residential lives of students in the USA. In 2011 the student number more than doubled and universities in Europe were included. In July 2012 the programme brought students from around the globe to the UFS for the Global Leadership Summit.

Prof Jansen inspired the young leaders, saying, “If you learn leadership values in your four years of study, a change will come. Build the new value system and take it into the country. Your capacity for change is limitless.”

He encouraged them to learn to know the stranger, not only abroad, but also the beggar at the street corner. “Learn to be comfortable with the beggar, as well as with the professor in the classroom.”

A stringent evaluation and training programme preceded the group’s visit abroad, and Prof Jansen could not formulate their achievement better: “I cannot tell you how proud I am of you.”

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