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01 November 2023 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Francois van Vuuren
UFS empowers through Human Settlements Training Programme
At the graduation ceremony for the Free State Provincial Department of Human Settlements, were from the left, front: Caren Somiah, Director: Housing Capacity, Building and Partnerships in the Free State Department of Human Settlements; Kagisho Motlhanke, Housing Coordinator at the Mangaung Metro; back: Thomas Stewart, Senior Lecturer in the UFS Department of Urban and Regional Planning; Dr Kgosi Mocwagae, Head of the UFS Department of Urban and Regional Planning; Adv Moferefere Dhlamini, Chief of Staff in the Office of the MEC; Sello Senoge, Matjhabeng Municipality; and Cyril Monyela, Deputy Director-General in the Free State Department of Human Settlements.

The Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of the Free State (UFS) hosted a certification ceremony for the Free State Provincial Department of Human Settlements on the Bloemfontein Campus on 30 October 2023.

A group of 40 officials from municipalities and the Provincial Department of Human Settlements were awarded certificates for completing four short learning programmes (SLPs) in Human Settlements, offered by the Department of Urban and Regional Planning. The training was conducted between November 2022 and May 2023.

Sustainable human settlements

“The overall aim of this training was to equip the participants to play a constructive role in human settlements in their respective places of employment,” said Dr Kgosi Mocwagae, Head of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the UFS. 

This is in line with the mission of the department to deliver – through excellent teaching and scholarship – competent urban and regional planners who will contribute to the creation of sustainable human settlements and improve the quality of life, particularly in Africa.

Dr Mocwagae reflected on the training presented, stating that it aimed to achieve several key objectives, including enhancing participants' understanding of the institutional framework governing the development and management of human settlements. It also sought to nurture a sensitivity to the principles of sustainable human settlement development, considering factors such as climate change, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), local legislation, and best practices. Additionally, the training placed significant emphasis on the importance and processes involved in upgrading informal settlements. Furthermore, it aimed to empower participants with the necessary skills to structure a proposal for the enhancement of informal settlements within the current legislative and administrative frameworks applicable in South Africa.

Building capacity

Cyril Monyela, the Deputy Director General in the Free State Department of Human Settlements, delivered the keynote address, congratulating the cohort of officials on their remarkable achievement.

In his address, he referred to the various pieces of legislation that have emerged over the years and emphasised the need for capacity to implement human settlement sector programmes, ensuring that millions of informal households in South Africa have access to decent shelter. Enhancing sector capacity by developing the skills of staff is one of the department's primary institutional objectives.

“It is the first of many skills courses designed to enable and ensure that practitioners in the Free State Department of Human Settlements execute the department’s mandate,” he stated.

The event concluded with an address from Advocate Shirly Hyland, Director of the Kovsie Phahamisa Academy. According to her, it is important to remember where one comes from, but it is also key to focus on our future. “Witnessing plans that originated in the 1950s coming to fruition, while not perfect yet, is encouraging and instils hope in South Africans regarding the progress being made,” she remarked. 

Adv Hyland referenced a quote from a corporate giant, ‘You are not your work, and your work is not you.’ “For you, this is not the case. Those of you who work in human settlements – your work literally follows you home. Human settlements affect every person from every sphere of life. The right to adequate housing is enshrined in the Bill of Rights, and with the expertise you have learned in these programmes, you have been equipped with the knowledge and power to bring this human right to life.”

“In completing this short learning programme, you have been entrusted with a critical task. You get to contribute to an environment in which citizens live and thrive. The environment where a veggie garden can feed a community; the environment in which the Protea or Bafana Bafana national teams can nurture their talents; and the environment in which the leaders of tomorrow are born and raised,” she said. 

In her final remarks, Adv Hyland referred to a quote from former President Nelson Mandela about education being the most powerful weapon one can use to change the world. “And this is exactly what you are doing. You have worked hard,” she said, urging the group of practitioners to change the world, one human settlement at a time. 

News Archive

Number of PhD graduates a record for School of Accountancy
2017-06-27

Description: School of Accountancy PhDs Tags: School of Accountancy PhDs

From left to right: Dr Stiaan Lamprecht,
Dr Cornelie Crous, Prof Hentie van Wyk
(Programme Director: School of Accountancy),
Prof Francis Pietersen (Rector and Vice-Chancellor),
Prof Dave Lubbe (Research Fellow: School of Accountancy),
Dr Léandi Steenkamp and Dr Louis Smidt.
Photo: Charl Devenish

This year’s mid-year graduation ceremony for master’s and doctoral degrees saw the School of Accountancy honouring four alumni with PhDs in Accounting on 26 June 2017 at the Callie Human – a record for the School of Accountancy.

Professor Hentie van Wyk, Programme Director of the School of Accountancy and promoter of one of the doctoral degrees, says, “Over the past three to four decades before 2017, no more than five doctoral degrees were awarded by the School of Accountancy.”

Dr Cornelie Crous, Dr Léandi Steenkamp, and Dr Louis Smidt received their doctoral degrees with specialisation in Auditing, and Dr Stiaan Lamprecht with specialisation in Accounting.

PhD candidates’ thesis and personal profiles
Dr Crous, who was born in Bloemfontein on 30 June 1979, is currently working in the School of Accountancy as a Senior Lecturer in Auditing. Her thesis, which is titled ‘Corporate Governance in South African Higher Education Institutions’, influences the application of corporate governance principles in higher-education institutions. It provides a thorough breakdown of the application and disclosure of the application of corporate governance principles in terms of both South African and international best practices in publicly-funded universities in the country.

Dr Lamprecht’s thesis, ‘A Financial Reporting Framework for South African Listed Companies under Business Rescue’, contributes innovative knowledge and insights to the existing body of knowledge on financial reporting.  According to his study, with reference to a listed company under business rescue, there is a need for an underlying financial reporting assumption that varies from the recognised going concern and liquidation assumptions. Users of the financial statements of such a company also require an accounting measurement model based on current values, as opposed to the mixed-measurements accounting model employed at present.

Dr Smidt completed both his master’s and PhD degrees at the UFS. This father of two sons is currently a lecturer at the Tshwane University of Technology. His thesis, ‘A Maturity Level Assessment on the use of Generalised Audit Software by Internal Audit Functions in the South African Banking Industry’, has already started to contribute to the internal audit profession in South Africa and globally.  Due to its existing extension to internal audit functions in various industries in Canada, Columbia, Portugal, and Australia, the value has been enhanced, as it now provides an internationally correlated set of results.

Dr Steenkamp, who completed her Magister in Auditing with a distinction at the UFS in 2013, is a qualified Chartered Accountant (CA (SA)), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), Professional Accountant (SA), and member of all the professional bodies. Her thesis, ‘The Sectional Title Industry in South Africa: Enhancing Accounting and Auditing Practices’, makes a significant impact on the sectional title industry and the accounting profession in South Africa. The literature review gave an in-depth overview of risks associated with sectional title for various stakeholders (i.e. owners, trustees, managing agents, auditors and accountants, and EAAB-appointed inspectors).

“Indeed a special day for the School of Accountancy!” says an ecstatic Prof Van Wyk. Professor Dave Lubbe, Research Fellow in the School of Accountancy, was the promoter for three of the four doctoral degrees.

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