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UFS looking to establish an academic programme focusing on coalition governments

29 June 2023 | Story Kekeletso Takang

UFS EMS Faculty hosts Coalition Governance Leadership workshop

In light of the rise of local governments being run by coalitions in South Africa, the upcoming national elections in 2024 might present the country with its first multi-party governments. However, with recent events in some of these coalition governments, questions regarding the stability of this form of government are mounting.

Through its Vision 130, the University of the Free State (UFS) seeks to positively impact society by using empirical knowledge to make a real difference. It is to this end that the UFS Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences recently hosted a workshop with the theme Coalition Governance Leadership: a social innovation approach with inspiring ideas, inclusive institutionalisation, and impactful implementation, aimed at deliberating the need for an academic programme focusing on the governance and public management of coalition governments.

This comes after Prof Erwin Schwella, emeritus professor of Public Leadership from Stellenbosch University (SU), and currently Dean at Hugenote College – also well-known for his work in public management and public policy – approached Dr Maréve Biljohn, Head of the Department of Public Administration and Management, and the Dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, Prof Philippe Burger, to discuss such an academic programme.

Coalition governance part and parcel of South Africa’s landscape

The workshop was attended by Prof Schwella, Prof Francis Petersen, UFS Vice-Chancellor and Principal, and academics from the faculties of Economic and Management Sciences and The Humanities, especially the Department of Governance and Political Transformation.

Speaking at the workshop, Prof Petersen highlighted that coalition governance seems to have become part and parcel of South Africa’s landscape. “It is highly likely that we will see a significant increase in coalitions during the national elections next year. Coalition governments enable small parties to participate in government and even hold important positions of leadership. As a higher education sector, our role is to draw on the insights and expertise of specialists in public management and public policy to develop academic programmes that guide the governance and public management of coalition governments.”

As a responsible global citizen, the UFS is not only working towards developing an academic programme that addresses both governance and management pillars but is also committed to addressing the needs of the country.

Functionality and stability of coalitions are critical

Dr Biljohn believes that the current political landscape in South Africa predicts that political party coalitions will have a seat at the governance table across the three spheres of government.

“Since the last local government elections, we have seen the formation of political party coalitions across several municipal councils. The functionality and stability of these coalitions are critical for, among others, decision-making related to sustainable service delivery, the adoption of a council’s budget, as well as by-laws and policies.”

“Where these coalitions fail, the consequences are detrimental to the municipality from an operational as well as a governance perspective, and this could affect communities adversely. The current state of local governance in some South African municipalities requires an administration that is skilled to provide a stable environment for service delivery, while managing and navigating the dynamics of coalition governance,” said Dr Biljohn.

Moreover, she continued, after the 2024 elections, national and provincial administrations should be equipped to deliver on their mandate in a governance environment that could be subject to the demands of political party coalitions. With the new norm of coalition governance, it is incumbent upon political and administrative office-bearers to have the professional skills and knowledge to lead and manage coalition governance from a political, executive, and administrative level.

Fostering more cohesion among coalition partners

“Therefore, the Department of Public Administration and Management, in collaboration with the Department of Political Studies and Governance, aims to contribute to the professional development of political and administrative office-bearers in the three government spheres to navigate this new governance environment. In this regard, the development of short learning programmes that will be targeted at these office-bearers is currently under discussion,” concluded Dr Biljohn.

Prof Burger said as an institution of higher learning, “we want to focus on the creation of programmes that can assist in fostering more cohesion among coalition partners, while also training officials on how to handle coalitions”.

For more information on the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences’ offerings, click here: https://www.ufs.ac.za/econ

News Archive

University publishes its Integrated Report

2013-08-23

23 August 2013

The university is proud to have published an integrated report in line with the King III requirements on corporate governance. The university is one of the first universities – if not the first – in South Africa to do so. The UFS sees integrated reporting as a public process through which we report to all our stakeholders, using evidence-based data, on the achievements and challenges of a public university.

Our first Integrated Report reviews the overall performance, non-financial and financial, of the UFS for the 2012 academic year. It is the first report of its kind delivered to stakeholders and guided by the King III framework which recommends integrated, sustainable performance that is reported in a way that enables stakeholders to make an informed assessment of an institution.

The Integrated Report notes that the conditions under which higher education institutions operate have become more demanding in the last two decades and there is a growing need for universities to be more explicit and transparent about the manner in which their core functions (teaching, research and public duty), as well as its administrative operations, are defined by and support good governance, sustainability and corporate citizenship.

The university welcomes this opportunity to present in public an integrated account of itself. In particular, the UFS sees this report as an opportunity to align more strongly its financial and non-financial reporting in pursuit of organisational sustainability and social transformation in South Africa.

Prof Jonathan Jansen, Vice-Chancellor and Rector, notes in the report that in the past four years the university has made significant progress in respect of its two foundational commitments, the Academic Project and the Human Project.

There are now more students entering the university who satisfy the higher requirements set for admission. “This will improve the throughput and graduation rates of incoming students, ensuring their personal success and satisfaction with higher education.” The establishment of a state-of-the-art Postgraduate School, for example, is expected to increase the number, quality and success rates of postgraduate students.

The research output has increased steadily and the contribution of the new Senior Professors project, as well as the five research clusters, have helped to improve the quality of research and the spread of postgraduate recruitment beyond South Africa.

On transformation, the Vice-Chancellor observes that “We have made significant progress in building inclusive, democratic and embracing campus cultures which affirm the value and dignity of all students and staff. With the steady increase of black students in a majority black campus, our goal remains to retain our diversity in a university that serves as an experiment in teaching students to live and learn and love together.”

Financial sustainability is a major commitment and the UFS has not only maintained its record of unqualified audits, but has steadily built a culture of risk management and performance evaluation throughout the system. Internal auditing is a strong instrument in our arsenal to secure financial and operational compliance in every department of the university.

“What integrates the systems and functions of the university is the alignment of everything we do with our two pillars, the Academic and Human Projects, built on a solid foundation of professional support services as described in the Strategic Plan adopted in 2012. In the process of preparing the Integrated Report we discovered how much still needs to be done to align the still disparate and independent activities of the three campuses, seven faculties and more than 100 departments of this large university,” according to the Vice-Chancellor.

The report is available at: http://www.ufs.ac.za/content.aspx?id=184.

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