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UFS students achieve outstanding success in the SAICA ITC examination

18 April 2024 | Story Anthony Mthembu | Photo Supplied

Mia Pretorius, one of the accountancy graduates from the UFS Class of 2023, excelled in the SAICA ITC examination, securing the 6th position nationally.

The accountancy graduates of the University of the Free State (UFS), Class of 2023, have showcased their excellence by achieving an impressive 86% pass rate in the January 2024 Initial Test of Competence (ITC) examination administered by the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA). This achievement underscores the rigorous academic standards and dedication upheld by both the students and the esteemed faculty of the UFS School of Accountancy.

Prof Frans Prinsloo, Director of the School of Accountancy at UFS, expressed profound satisfaction at these remarkable results. He remarked, ‘’This achievement bears testament to the many hours of hard work invested over many years by the UFS School of Accountancy team and its students, and it brings us great joy.’’

Among the shining stars of this accomplishment is Mia Pretorius, a SAICA Audit Trainee at Deloitte in Cape Town and a distinguished UFS alumnus. Pretorius clinched the sixth position nationwide in the exam, surpassing over 2000 graduates across the country. Reflecting on her achievement, Pretorius conveyed her overwhelming gratitude, acknowledging the challenging nature of the examination, particularly the time constraints. She attributed her success to the comprehensive preparation received at UFS, stating, ‘’We wrote some difficult examinations during my time at UFS, so I was well prepared and found the ITC to be a bit easier than some of the exams that were written at UFS.’’

Prof Prinsloo lauded Pretorius’s success as a testament to the effectiveness of the CA programme at UFS, stating,’ Our CA programme not only enables our graduates to pass the ITC examination but, in fact, empowers them also to excel.’’

The significance of this accomplishment extends beyond individual success stories. Prof Prinsloo emphasised that the SAICA ITC examination serves as a crucial benchmark for evaluating the quality of the Chartered Accountancy (CA) programme offered at UFS. He elaborated, ‘’These results signify that the CA programme offered by the UFS not only develops our students’ technical competence in the subject areas of Financial Accounting, Auditing, Taxation and Managerial Accounting and Finance to the appropriate level but also equips them with the essential professional skills.’’

With aspirations for their students to make meaningful contributions to their respective fields and communities, Prof Prinsloo expressed hope that these accomplished students uphold ethical standards and serve as inspiration for our future students.

The achievements of the UFS accounting graduates of 2023 in the SAICA ITC examination underscore the university’s commitment to academic excellence and the holistic development of its students.

News Archive

In her inaugural lecture, Prof Helene Strauss explores symbols that reflect our history

2014-02-18

Prof Helene Strauss
The burning tyre – image of promise and disappointment
Photo: Stephen Collett

Prof Helene Strauss did not disappoint in her highly-anticipated inaugural lecture “The Spectacles of Promise and Disappointment: Political Emotion and Quotidian Aesthetics in Post-transitional South Africa”. She posed some very challenging ideas on the promises and disappointments that arouse from apartheid. Prof Strauss pointed to the fact that “… a promise must promise to be kept; that is, not to remain spiritual or abstract, but to produce events, new effective forms of action, practice, organisation, and so forth.”

She underscored the message of her lecture by making use of the image of a burning tyre – a symbol commonly associated with apartheid. This act of ‘necklacing’ is closely connected to the violence and protests of that era. Prof Strauss used this image to represent an array of social concerns: global mass protest, modernity and mobility, waste economies and waste management, environmental destruction, as well as poverty and resistance in varied formats.

Some of South Africa’s greatest artists have used the burning tyre in their work, particularlyBerni Searle and Zanele Muhloi. Not only does it trigger the shadow of the damaging past, but “more recently, it has come to figure also in the spectacles of promise and disappointment that have marked the country’s transitional and post-transitional periods,” Prof Strauss remarked.

Prof Strauss focuses her research on these symbolisms in our history because of “the questions that they raise about the emotional cultures produced in the aftermath of apartheid and for the unique contribution that they make to current debates on political and aesthetic activism.”Her passion for this subject comes from the “affective or emotional legacies of various forms of structural inequality, an interest that owes a sizeable debt to postcolonial, queer and feminist critical theory and creative work of the past hundred or so years.”

Prof Strauss accepted a position at the University of the Free Sate in 2011 and currently works in the Department of English. She is part of the Vice-Chancellor’s Prestige Scholars Programme and holds a PhD from the University of Western Ontario. Previously, she held the position of Assistant Professor in the Department of English and Cultural Studies at McMaster University in Canada, where she resided for 11 years.

Among the guests were Prof Jonathan Jansen, Profs Botes and Witthuhn, lecturers in the Department of English, members of the Faculty of the Humanities, students and some of Prof Strauss’ colleagues from Canada.

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