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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

Studies to reveal correlation between terrain, energy use, and giraffe locomotion

2016-11-18

More than half of giraffes in captivity in Europe are afflicted by lameness. This high prevalence represents an important welfare issue, similar to other large zoo animals.

According to Dr Chris Basu, a veterinarian at the Royal Veterinary College in the UK, giraffes in captivity are often afflicted by overgrown hooves, laminitis and joint problems. Diagnosis and treatment is limited by our understanding of anatomy and function, more specifically the locomotion of these animals. Although the giraffe is such a well-known and iconic animal, relatively little has been studied about their locomotor behaviour.

Dr Basu recently visited South Africa to do fieldwork on the locomotion of giraffes as part of his PhD studies under the mentorship of world-renowned Professor of Evolutionary Biomechanics, Prof John Hutchinson. This project is a joint venture between Dr Basu and Dr Francois Deacon, researcher in the Department of Animal, Wildlife, and Grassland Sciences at the UFS. Dr Deacon is a specialist in giraffe habitat-related research.

Together Prof Hutchinson and Drs Deacon and Basu form a research group, working on studies about giraffe locomotion.

Wild giraffe population decrease by 40% in past decade

“Locomotion is one of the most common animal behaviours and comes with a significant daily energetic cost. Studying locomotion of wild animals aids us in making estimates of this energetic cost. Such estimates are useful in understanding how giraffes fit into ecosystems. Future conservation efforts will be influenced by knowledge of the energy demands in giraffes.

“Understanding aspects of giraffe locomotion also helps us to understand the relationships between anatomy, function and evolution. This is relevant to our basic understanding of the natural world, as well as to conservation and veterinary issues,” said Dr Deacon.

Locomotion study brings strategy for specialist foot care

On face value it seems as if foot disease pathologies are more common in zoo giraffes than in wild giraffes. “However, we need a good sample of data from both populations to prove this assumption,” said Dr Basu.

This phenomenon is not well understood at the moment, but it’s thought that diet, substrate (e.g. concrete, straw, sand and grass) and genetics play a part in foot disease in giraffes. “Understanding how the feet are mechanically loaded during common activities (standing, walking, running) gives our research group ideas of where the highest strains occur, and later how these can be reduced through corrective foot trimming,” said Dr Basu.

Through the studies on giraffe locomotion, the research group plans to devise strategies for corrective foot trimming. At the moment, foot trimming is done with the best evidence available, which is extrapolation from closely related animals such as cattle. “But we know that giraffes’ specialist anatomy will likely demand specialist foot care,” Dr Basu said.

Studying giraffes in smaller versus larger spaces

The research group has begun to study the biomechanics of giraffe walking by looking at the kinematics (the movement) and the kinetics (the forces involved in movement) during walking strides. For this he studied adult giraffes at three zoological parks in the UK.

However, due to the close proximity of fencing and buildings, it is not practical to study fast speeds in a zoo setting.

A setting such as the Willem Pretorius Nature Reserve, near Ventersburg in the Free State, Kwaggafontein Nature Reserve, near Colesberg in the Karoo, and the Woodland Hills Wildlife Estate in Bloemfontein are all ideal for studying crucial aspects such as “faster than walking” speeds and gaits to measure key parameters (such as stride length, step frequency and stride duration). These studies are important to understand how giraffe form and function are adapted to their full range of locomotor behaviours. It also helps to comprehend the limits on athletic capacity in giraffes and how these compare to other animals.

Drones open up unique opportunities for studying giraffes

The increasing availability of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)/drones opens up unique opportunities for studying locomotion in animals like giraffes. Cameras mounted onto remotely controlled UAVs are a straightforward way to obtain high-quality video footage of giraffes while they run at different speeds.

“Using two UAVs, we have collected high definition slow motion video footage of galloping giraffes from three locations in the Free State. We have also collected detailed information about the terrain that the giraffes walked and ran across. From this we have created 3D maps of the ground. These maps will be used to examine the preferred terrain types for giraffes, and to see how different terrains affect their locomotion and energy use,” said Dr Deacon.

“The raw data (videos) will be digitised to obtain the stride parameters and limb angles of the animals. Later this will be combined with anatomical data and an estimation of limb forces to estimate the power output of the limbs and how that changes between different terrains,” said Dr Basu.

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