The MEC of Limpopo Provincial Treasury Mr David Masondo was honoured to join the University of Limpopo as they celebrated their status of accreditation with the South African Institute of Charted Accountants (SAICA), the event which was held on the 16th of November at the University of Limpopo’s Turfloop Campus, was described as "an occasion that glitters with all; brains and beauty". This marks a great stride along a real development of not only the University and its students, but also for the province of Limpopo at large.
The university of Limpopo is a merger of Medical University of Southern Africa (Medunsa) and the former University of the North, which are both historically Disadvantaged Universities (HDU’s), most HDU’s do not have South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) accredited programmes.
And the University of Limpopo was no different from the many. The consequences of the lack of accreditation are many; amongst many of these consequences, this meant that the province could not absorb its talent in terms of good performing accounting students. Moreover bursaries often assist students who are taking the Chartered Accountant (CA) route, and so the students in these HDU’s are structurally disqualified from these benefits. Thus this accreditation will indeed be of significance to the province.
The decision to support the initiative was taken by the province as an Executive Council (EXCO) decision; the Council approved the strategy to build financial management competency and skills in the provincial public sector. EXCO decided that priority must be given to the University Of Limpopo School of accounting in awarding bursaries for financial degrees. Additionally the province was to be involved in the monitoring of performance of bursary students and supporting these students by offering vacation work.
From onset Limpopo Provincial treasury has shown decisive support to the University as the department realized the great significance of this accreditation. The department created the school’s advisory committee, where our own Senior General Manager, Mr Gavin Prat was part of, this yet again demonstrates our commitment and also our seriousness in making sure that the province progresses in the financial fraternity. The department further played an influential and critical role in getting First National Bank (FNB) to sponsor R1.5 million over a period of 5 years on students’ awards.
Our support as Treasury shall not end here; we are still going to work closely with the University. Auditor-General alluded to the fact that there are seventeen (17) charted accountants working for them in the Province and out of those, 14 are black. We are indeed sure that the number of charted accountants will grow in this province. And we indeed hope that they will call Provincial Treasury their preferred employer.
He was accompanied by Messers Nerulal Ramdharie (HoD), Gavin Pratt (AG) and MEC’s support.
Enquiries:
Nokubongwa Mdlalose
Cell: 076 493 9801
E-mail: MdlaloseNC@treasury.limpopo.gov.za
