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University taught me to spread my wings

03 January 2023 | Story Charlene Stanley | Photo Supplied

Vuyelwa Vumendlini, Alternate Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC.

High-profile positions at National Treasury, the World Bank and now also the International Monetary Fund in Washington, mark an illustrious career for UFS Economics alumna, Vuyelwa Vumendlini.

“Go in full force, hands and feet, and accept this opportunity of a lifetime. You won’t regret it.” These words of Dr Minette Smit, her thesis supervisor, proved to be pivotal advice to a young Vuyelwa Vumendlini. At the time, she was doing her BCom Honours in Economics (1996-1999) and was presented with a scholarship opportunity to complete her master’s degree in the USA.

“I was afraid to leave my home and my comfort zone,” she explains. “But looking back, I’m extremely grateful to have taken that step.”

Her studies culminated in an appointment as Senior Adviser to the Executive Director at the World Bank, then Deputy Director-General: International and Regional Economic Policy at the National Treasury, and now as Alternate Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in Washington DC. As an IMF executive board member, Vumendlini represents 23 English-speaking African countries that are members of a constituency. The Executive Board of the IMF has 24 chairs, representing 24 constituencies from its 189 countries’ membership. Among her duties are considering policy issues and surveillance reports, as well as approving and monitoring IMF programmes involving lending and/or technical assistance.

Since this is the second stint in Washington for her and her children, Simphiwe, Enhle, and Anele, settling down was much easier. “Because of the COVID-19 isolation, we were kind of used to being alone at home, so we didn’t find the solitude that bad while we were still making new friends.”

She misses South African food the most – things like biltong and boerewors – and the proximity of favourite restaurants like Ocean Basket and Mugg & Bean. She has fond memories of her study years, working as an assistant in the Department of Economics, hanging out at Mooimeisiesfontein on Saturdays, and building rag floats for Vergeet-My-Nie and Kestell residences. Plans for the future include tackling her PhD in Economics.

Her advice to UFS students: “Be up to date with what is happening around you. Do not be afraid to do things differently. Be agile in your approach to achieving your career aspirations and be ready to take on those opportunities when they present themselves.”

News Archive

First UFS/AS Young African Scholar Award winner announced

2016-03-10

Fana Gebresenbet Erda, winner of the first University of the Free State /Africa Spectrum Young African Scholar Award, for his research on political economy.
Photo: Supplied

Scholarship in African Studies still faces the challenge of capacity-building to increase ownership by authors and institutions from and on the African continent. It also requires more coordinated efforts to provide the space deserved by African authors in the international domain. In 2015, the University of the Free State (UFS) Centre for Africa Studies joined forces with Africa Spectrum (AS) in a bid to address this issue by establishing the UFS/AS Young African Scholar Award.

This award seeks to strengthen efforts to promote internationally recognised African scholarship in African Studies. One way to achieve this objective is through publishing articles by researchers based in Africa and in the diaspora in Africa Spectrum, an accredited journal compiled by the German Institute of Global and Area Studies in Hamburg.

The inaugural award winner
Fana Gebresenbet Erda, a PhD candidate in a Global and European Studies programme jointly offered by the University of Leipzig (Germany) and Addis Ababa University, wrote the winning article for 2015. He will receive a three-year affiliation to the UFS Centre for Africa Studies as a Research Fellow, along with prize money of R5 000, sponsored by the UFS.

His article, The Ethiopian Developmental State in Its Peripheral Lowlands: Large-Scale Land Acquisitions, the Politics of Dispossession and State Remaking in Gambella, Western Ethiopia, argues that development through large-scale land acquisitions in Gambella, Western Ethiopia, belies a state-remaking project under a dispossessive political economy.

Submission now open
Africa Spectrum invites scholars to submit research articles in the context of the award. In October of each year a review committee selects submissions for review. Those eligible to submit are postgraduate students nearing completion of their PhD theses and postdoctoral scholars who were awarded their PhDs no more than five years earlier at the time of the submission deadline. Those submitting should be from Africa or should be affiliated to African institutions.

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