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UFS to host ABASA’s sixth annual Prof Wiseman Nkuhlu Lecture

18 July 2023 | Story Kekeletso Takang

UFS to host ABASA sixth annual Prof Wiseman Nkuhlu lecture

The University of the Free State (UFS) is pleased to host the Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants of Southern Africa’s (ABASA) sixth annual Wiseman Nkuhlu lecture on 28 July 2023 in the Equitas Auditorium on its Bloemfontein Campus.

The prestigious lecture will be delivered by Tantaswa Fubu, ABASA past President and CEO of Great Well, under the theme, The Value of Accountants Reimagined.

ABASA was established in 1985 to promote the professional interests of black persons engaged in the accounting profession. Through this lecture, the association aims to raise renewed support from ABASA stakeholders, captains of industry, and corporates to assist in providing the resources and expertise required for the university to continue producing the leadership excellence it is known and respected for.

Attendees can look forward to presentations by Prof Wiseman Nkuhlu, Chancellor of the University of Pretoria and Chairman of the Board of KPMG; Linda Maqoma, ABASA President; Dr Molapo Qhobela, a Deputy Vice-Chancellor at the UFS; Ayanda Mafuleka, CEO of Fasset; and Likeleli Monyamane, Programme Manager at Standard Bank Group.

The event will be attended by dignitaries from the UFS, SAICA, Fasset, and ABASA.

Event details:

Date:	28 July 2023
Time:	14:00-16:00
Venue:	Equitas Auditorium
RSVP:	communications@abasa.org.za

For more information, click here: https://ufsweb.co/3rzOORh

The prestigious lecture will be delivered by:

Tantaswa Fubu

Tantaswa Fubu was Group Executive: Human Capital and Transformation at Barloworld Limited, an industrial brand management company based in Sandton, South Africa. Fubu’s experience spans 30 years in diverse areas of the economy, including the banking, industrial, automotive, medical scheme, and mining sectors. At Barloworld, she was also instrumental in the integration of newly acquired businesses that performed exceptionally well in their first year; under her leadership, Barloworld was named among the overall Gender Mainstreaming Champions of 2020.

Fubu has worked for KPMG SA, where she was Executive Head: People (HR) and Transformation, and a member of the executive committee. She is a chartered accountant with qualifications in industrial psychology, accounting, banking, and finance.

She has also served as National President of the Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants of Southern Africa (ABASA). In addition, Fubu has previously worked for Standard Bank and Nkonki Inc, and serves as a non-executive director on several boards.

She is the founding CEO of Great Well, as well as a mentor and coach.

Bios of speakers:

Prof Wiseman Nkuhlu

Prof Wiseman Nkuhlu is the former Chancellor of the University of Pretoria and a member of the advisory board of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA).

Prof Nkuhlu served two terms as President of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants, from April 1998 to April 2000. He is passionately involved with the development of black accountants and is the patron of the Nkuhlu School of Accounting at the University of Fort Hare.

He served as economic adviser to the President of the Republic of South Africa, TM Mbeki, and as chief executive of the secretariat of New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) from 2000 to 2005, playing a major role in the elaboration of NEPAD policy framework and in promoting the programme both in Africa and internationally. He regularly participates as a speaker at international conferences on African development issues and corporate governance.

In recognition of his contribution to education, business, and development, Prof Nkuhlu has received a number of awards, including honorary doctorates from the University of the Free State, Stellenbosch University, the University of Cape Town, the University of Pretoria, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, the University of the Witwatersrand, and the University of Fort Hare; and merit awards from the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce, the Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants of Southern Africa, and the Black Management Forum. He was also awarded the President of Convocation Medal by the University of Cape Town in June 2004. The medal is awarded to graduates of UCT for outstanding community service.

Linda Maqoma

Linda Maqoma is the national president of ABASA, as well as the founding and chief executive of the Nomatshawe Group. Maqoma holds a BCom Accounting degree and Postgraduate Diploma in Accounting from the University of Fort Hare and has 11 years of experience in the audit space, both in the public and private sectors. She is the deputy chairperson of the Southern African Institute of Government Auditors (SAIGA) Africa and Global Committee, a member of the Black Business Council, National Council and Women's Alliance, Black Management Forum, as well as a member of the Black Business Women's Alliance steering committee.

With an inherent passion for business, people, and development, Maqoma is also an independent non-executive director of the Young African Entrepreneurs Institute, providing advice on the finance and fundraising portfolio. She is a candidate fellow of the fourth class of the Young African Leaders Initiative – South Africa (YALI), an extension of the Aspen Global Leadership Network fellowship. She has served as an audit manager in financial services at KPMG and as a success coach at SAPRO.

Dr Molapo Qhobela

Dr Qhobela holds a PhD in Plant Pathology from the Kansas State University in the United States of America. His career started at Rhodes University in 1991, where he was a lecturer in microbiology and pharmacy, after which he joined the University of Cape Town, before joining the public service sector. His leadership and strategic direction have been sought by several large and complex organisations in the course of his career. From 1998 to 2007, he was Chief Director: Higher Education Policy and Development Support in the Department of Education, from 2007 to 2009 he was Deputy Director General: Higher Education in the same department, and from 2010 to 2011 he was Deputy Director General: Human Capital and Knowledge Systems in the Department of Science and Technology.

Dr Qhobela was appointed Vice-Principal: Institutional Development at the University of South Africa (UNISA) in 2011 and held the position until 2015. He was the Chief Executive Officer of the National Research Foundation (NRF) from 2016 to 2020.
Dr Qhobela has strong governance credentials, having served and led governing boards, among others as the former chairperson of the boards of the Agricultural Research Council, the Global Research Council, and the Committee of Heads of Organisations of Research and Technology (COHORT). He is currently the chairperson of the Tertiary Education and Research Network of South Africa (TENET).

Ayanda Mafuleka

Ayanda Mafuleka was appointed CEO of the Financial and Accounting Services Seta (FASSET) with effect from 1 January 2019. She previously served as the CFO of the state-owned coal mining company, African Exploration Mining and Finance Corporation (AEMFC). Prior to her AEMFC role, she was CFO at the National Credit Regulator. She has worked in finance across a diverse range of departments in government, including Transtel, the National Ports Authority, National Treasury, the Department of Home Affairs, and Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo. She holds a BCom Honours, Postgraduate Diploma in Forensic Auditing, and an LLB from UNISA.

Likeleli Monyamane

Monyamane sought to utilise the platform that her profession provided to serve her community. From her articles days, Monyamane served as a member of the Free State chapter of the Association for the Advancement of Black Accountants of Southern Africa (ABASA), rising through the ranks to become its first female chairperson. She also served as the youngest member of the University of the Free State Council, as well as on its audit and risk and finance committees.

She co-founded the Keep Lesotho Clean Campaign, which aims to solve Lesotho’s waste management challenges. The group hosts monthly clean-up campaigns and is planning to host a waste management conference and business and innovation challenges.

Monyamane is committed to the development of the accounting profession in Lesotho and has partnered with the Lesotho Institute of Accountants to host a number of development initiatives, such as a young accountant development workshop and a student leadership summit.

Monyamane is also a successful businesswoman who runs a professional services company in Lesotho – Inspire Innovation Business Consultants – with a number of leadership achievements, including the Mandela Washington Fellowship. She holds an MBA from the African Leadership University.

News Archive

Gender bias still rife in African Universities

2007-08-03

At the lecture were, from the left: Prof. Magda Fourie (Vice-Rector: Academic Planning), Prof. Amina Mama (Chair: Gender Studies, University of Cape Town), Prof. Engela Pretorius (Vice-Dean: Humanties) and Prof. Letticia Moja (Dean: Faculty of Health Sciences).
Photo: Stephen Collett

Gender bias still rife in African Universities

Women constitute about 30% of student enrolment in African universities, and only about 6% of African professors are women. This is according to the chairperson of Gender Studies at the University of Cape Town, Prof Amina Mama.

Prof Mama was delivering a lecture on the topic “Rethinking African Universities” as part of Women’s Day celebrations at the University of the Free State (UFS) today.

She says the gender profile suggests that the majority of the women who work in African universities are not academics and researchers, but rather the providers of secretarial, cleaning, catering, student welfare and other administrative and support services.

She said that African universities continue to display profound gender bias in their students and staffing profiles and, more significantly, are deeply inequitable in their institutional and intellectual cultures. She said women find it difficult to succeed at universities as they are imbued with patriarchal values and assumptions that affect all aspects of life and learning.

She said that even though African universities have never excluded women, enrolling them presents only the first hurdle in a much longer process.

“The research evidence suggests that once women have found their way into the universities, then gender differentiations continue to arise and to affect the experience and performance of women students in numerous ways. Even within single institutions disparities manifest across the levels of the hierarchy, within and across faculties and disciplines, within and between academic and administrative roles, across generations, and vary with class and social background, marital status, parental status, and probably many more factors besides these”, she said.

She lamented the fact that there is no field of study free of gender inequalities, particularly at postgraduate levels and in the higher ranks of academics. “Although more women study the arts, social sciences and humanities, few make it to professor and their research and creative output remains less”, she said.

Prof Mama said gender gaps as far as employment of women within African universities is concerned are generally wider than in student enrolment. She said although many women are employed in junior administrative and support capacities, there continues to be gross under-representation of women among senior administrative and academic staff. She said this disparity becomes more pronounced as one moves up the ranks.

“South African universities are ahead, but they are not as radically different as their policy rhetoric might suggest. A decade and a half after the end of apartheid only three of the 23 vice-chancellors in the country are women, and women fill fewer than 30% of the senior positions (Deans, Executive Directors and Deputy Vice-Chancellors)”, she said.

She made an observation that highly qualified women accept administrative positions as opposed to academic work, thus ensuring that men continue to dominate the ranks of those defined as ‘great thinkers’ or ‘accomplished researchers’.

“Perhaps women simply make realistic career choices, opting out of academic competition with male colleagues who they can easily perceive to be systematically advantaged, not only within the institution, but also on the personal and domestic fronts, which still see most African women holding the baby, literally and figuratively”, she said

She also touched on sexual harassment and abuse which she said appears to be a commonplace on African campuses. “In contexts where sexual transactions are a pervasive feature of academic life, women who do succeed are unlikely to be perceived as having done so on the basis of merit or hard work, and may be treated with derision and disbelief”, she said.

She, however, said in spite of broader patterns of gender and class inequality in universities, public higher education remains a main route to career advancement and mobility for women in Africa.

“Women’s constrained access has therefore posed a constraint to their pursuit of more equitable and just modes of political, economic and social development, not to mention freedom from direct oppression”, she said.

Prof Mama concluded by saying, “There is a widely held agreement that there is a need to rethink our universities and to ensure that they are transformed into institutions more compatible with the democratic and social justice agendas that are now leading Africa beyond the legacies of dictatorship, conflict and economic crisis, beyond the deep social divisions and inequalities that have characterised our history”.

She said rethinking universities means asking deeper questions about gender relations within them, and taking concerted and effective action to transform these privileged bastions of higher learning so that they can fulfil their pubic mandate and promise instead of lagging behind our steadily improving laws and policies.

Media Release
Issued by: Mangaliso Radebe
Assistant Director: Media Liaison
Tel: 051 401 2828
Cell: 078 460 3320
E-mail: radebemt.stg@ufs.ac.za
02 August 2007

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