Latest News Archive
Please select Category, Year, and then Month to display items
17 January 2024
|
Story Leonie Bolleurs
|
Photo Sonia Small
"Dreams and expectations are the foundation of transformative leadership. It fuels my determination to push boundaries and strive for the seemingly impossible in pursuit of positive change," says Siphilangenkosi Dlamini.
At 16, he wrote himself a letter with a quote from a book he was reading: “To achieve the impossible, it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought.” This became his guiding light.
“Dreams and expectations are the foundation of transformative leadership, fuelling my determination to push boundaries and strive for the seemingly impossible in pursuit of positive change,” says Siphilangenkosi Dlamini, Assistant Coordinator of the Initiative for Creative African Narratives (ICAN) in the Centre for Teaching and Learning and a student in Political Governance and Transformation.
Dlamini has served in numerous leadership roles – from President of the Fakazi Combined School RCL in 2013 up to his current position as President of the UFS Chapter of the United Nations Association of South Africa. “What inspired me to take this position, was my commitment to the United Nations’ principles and values, with a focus on advocating for peace, sustainability, and social justice within the university community,” he says.
Other highlights in Dlamini’s activist career include serving as the Interim Chair of the African Youth Business Council and driving discussions on the African Union Continental Free Trade Area. He also founded Lihawu Industries PTY LTD, where he facilitated 7 698 placements in South African institutions through Operation Siyafundza, providing disadvantaged youth with access to higher education.
Dlamini champs curriculum decolonisation and equitable, inclusive education. Among others, he served as a member of the South African Students Congress (SASCO), was a FeesMustFall activist, and has been involved in the call for free education in South Africa since its inception in 2016. He tirelessly advocates for youth voices, sustainable development, and positive change in the region, making a significant impact with his initiatives.
Academic addresses financial planning leaders at world summit
2010-05-04
 |
| Adv. Wessel Oosthuizen, Director of the Centre for Financial Planning Law at the University of the Free State (UFS), addressing financial leaders at the World Financial Planning Summit. |
Adv. Wessel Oosthuizen, Director of the Centre for Financial Planning Law at the University of the Free State (UFS), is chair to four Financial Planning Standards Board (FPSB) expert panels that guide the global Certified Financial Planning (CFP) certification programme. At the recent World Financial Planning Summit, held in Taipei in China, he challenged a group of global financial planning leaders to support the formation of a global financial planning body of knowledge with sustainable career-path development opportunities.
He said: “For financial planning to be recognised as a distinct professional practice and a global profession, the financial planning community must establish a universal body of knowledge that is supported by applicable in-depth research.
“We need to establish how professional bodies should collaborate with academia to integrate a more competency-based education and training environment that combines theory with practice. Fostering and promoting comprehensive research in financial planning topics is another key challenge that must be addressed in order to develop a tertiary knowledge framework for the financial planning profession.”
Adv. Oosthuizen, who is playing a big role in providing consistent and rigorous education and assessment tools for financial planning in 2010, said that a bachelor’s degree should be a compulsory minimum requirement for practising financial planners.
About the learning curve between the academic and work environments in the financial planning profession, Adv. Oosthuizen said: “Implementing a career-path model that supports a more structured approach to apprenticeships and supervised practice would complement a specialised financial planning body of knowledge and provide entrants to the profession with the necessary theoretical knowledge and practical experience to offer competent and ethical financial planning.”
The World Financial Planning Summit engaged global leaders of more than 17 financial planning standards-setting bodies, as well as regulators, financial planning educators and other invited guests in a dialogue about the steps needed to gain recognition for financial planning as a distinct, global profession.