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Juanita Burjins joins USAf leadership team, contributing strategic expertise

04 May 2023 | Story Lunga Luthuli | Photo Supplied

Juanita Burjins, Head: Leadership and Development in the Department of Human Resources at the University of the Free State, was recently appointed as a member of the Universities South Africa’s Leadership Management Strategy Group (LMSG). The appointment to the group in April 2023 is a testament and a recognition of Burjin’s leadership and expertise, not only in the field of human resources but also in the higher education sector.

The LMSG is responsible for initiating activities that would allow it to develop evidence-based influences on the work of Higher Education Learner Management (HELM), and to advise the board on the programmatic direction of HELM, including its financial sustainability and identifying opportunities for the growth and expansion of its post-school education and training.

As a member of the USAf Leadership Management Strategy Group – a position Burjins will hold for three years – she will contribute and provide strategic advice to the USAf Board, the Chief Executive, and the Director of Higher Education Leadership and Management, regarding planning, implementation, and monitoring.

Burjins said: “I was nominated by the Skills Development Facilitators Forum; in the group, I will be responsible for engagement and alignment with member universities and other key role players in terms of their leadership and management development needs.”

Beaming with pride, Burjins is looking forward to “working with a group of expert leaders within the higher education sector and contributing to enabling and empowering learning opportunities”.

“I am proud that I could represent the University of the Free State in this capacity and contribute to the stability and effectiveness of institutional leadership and management in the higher education sector. With the opportunity, I am also looking forward to providing strategic advice, advocacy, and tactical programme management support for HELM, and identifying potential national and regional collaborations and partnerships with other universities,” added Burjins.

Burjins believes it is important to have the USAf Leadership Management Strategy Group in higher education, as it provides ‘strategic advice to the USAf Board on the planning, implementation, and monitoring of HELM for the engagement and alignment of member universities in terms of the leadership and development needs as well as the relevance and responsiveness of programme offering and other services in leadership and development.

News Archive

#Women'sMonth: Kovsie entrepreneur making waves in business world

2017-08-25

Akhona Monakalali to take on the business world.
Photo: Rulanzen Martin

Whoever came up with the idea that ‘a woman’s place is in the kitchen’, has definitely not met Akhona Monakalali. Monakalali, a postgraduate student busy with an Accounting diploma on the Bloemfontein Campus of the University of the Free State (UFS), is a force to be reckoned with. She was born in Katlehong Township in Gauteng, and moved to Aliwal North in the Eastern Cape a few years later.

Making international waves in business
Monakalali is a Professional Accountant and an entrepreneur who continues to make her mark in the entrepreneurial world. She just recently participated in the Progressive African Network’s (PAN) Annual African Entrepreneurship Expo in Boston, USA, which was hosted by PAN and the Hult Women in Business Club. She was invited to the expo to share her insights on entrepreneurship in South Africa. “I and four other Africans participated in the expo via Skype. It was a very successful event and very insightful,” she says.

Awarded for positive contribution in communities
While she was doing her undergraduate degree, she was elected as the President/CEO of the Golden Key UFS Chapter in 2007. After competing with other universities in the national championships, they won and qualified for the Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) World Cup in New York City. SIFE is an international non-profit organisation working with university students who want to change their communities positively, and gain practical knowledge to become socially responsible business leaders.

This international acknowledgement influenced her peers – among millions of other South African teens – to vote for her in the Seventeen Magazine’s Top Teen Achiever Award for her community contribution. Later in that same year, she received a special Service Leadership Award from the Dean of her faculty for her contribution towards creating a better world through business.
She has since established an in-home tutoring foundation called Monakali Academy, which offers parents and struggling students affordable, one-on-one tutoring in the comfort of their homes.
“Tutoring is performed in the student’s home in order to provide a comfortable and non-competitive environment for learning,” says Monakalali.
She will also be involved with various entrepreneurs throughout Africa, working on ways to improve youth entrepreneurship on the African continent.

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