Lekgotla day two: Continued adjustment of strategy, and celebration of achievements

Unisa’s portfolio heads intensely engaged in discussing the core areas of the university

On 11 April 2025, the second day of the Unisa Principal and Vice-Chancellor’s Lekgotla, the university’s management corps continued to deliberate on the university’s strategy and deliverable targets on mandates included in the university strategy and strategic plan from each key department, including the following:

• Expanding financial sustainability and advisory services to mitigate student attrition rates through diversification of funding, and third- and fourth-stream income initiatives
• The Directorate for Counselling and Career Development’s support initiatives towards students experiencing mental health issues during the course of their studies
• Improving student engagement initiatives to enhance a sense of belonging and academic success through student exchange, enhancing industry partnerships, and employability and entrepreneurship initiatives to achieve real-world applications of learning
• College progress and challenges in the implementation and optimisation of the catalytic niche areas
• Catalytic niche areas programme management pathway

Unisa Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Prof Puleng LenkaBula

Celebrating excellence

While the Lekgotla is known for having management engaged in intense strategic planning for the university’s students and sustainable goals, Professor Puleng LenkaBula, Unisa Principal and Vice-Chancellor (VC) used the occasion to make the following celebratory announcements:

• The VC congratulated Professor Thenjiwe Meyiwa, Vice-Principal of Research, Postgraduate Studies, Innovation, and Commercialisation, who is the upcoming Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Mpumalanga. The announcement was met with cheers and resounding applause.
• The VC also congratulated Professor Khehla Ndlovu, former Unisa Vice-Principal of Strategy, Risk and Advisory Services, who was installed as Vice-Chancellor of the Vaal University of Technology on 17 March 2025.

In addition, the following exceptional achievements were noted:

• Professor Puleng Segalo, incumbent of the Chief Albert Luthuli Research Chair, was listed among the top 10 African intellectuals to look out for by The Africa Report, a France-based quarterly magazine which focuses on African politics and economics. Segalo stated: “As an academic and researcher, I am constantly appreciative of the opportunity to think, imagine and reflect on societal challenges; and together with my team, seek ways to create platforms and programmes to respond in ways that move us towards a better world”.
• Mathabo Nakene-Mginqi, Unisa Chief Information Officer and Vice-Principal of Information and Communication Technology, was named among the top five South African women CIOs of the 2025 by Wired4Women Awards, an initiative of the Wired4Women Tech Forum and ITWeb Brainstorm. The awards celebrate outstanding women working in the South African tech industry and aiming to foster inclusion, honour female role models, and open doors for future generations of tech leaders.
• Trudy Forbay, Acting Executive Director: Study Material, Production and Delivery, is set to graduate with a Doctor of Business Leadership degree in the upcoming graduation season. Her thesis, How race, gender and class intersect to impact the lived experiences of coloured women leaders within South African organisations, embodies her personal experiences as a woman leader, driven to be an agent of change.
• Professor Pumela Msweli, Executive Dean and CEO of the Graduate School of Business Leadership, received an award on behalf of the school in the category Best Business School in Leadership Development at the South Africa Leadership Awards 2025. The event was organised by the World HRD Congress in association with the Institute of People Management South Africa, a professional membership body representing the human resource and people management fraternity.

From left: Prof Thenjiwe Meyiwa, outgoing Vice-Principal of Research, Postgraduate Studies, Innovation, and Commercialisation, Prof Phumla Msweli, Executive Dean and CEO of Unisa Graduate School of Business Leadership, Trudy Forbay, Acting Executive Director: Study Material, Production and Delivery, and Prof Solomon Magano, Vice-Principal: Institutional Development

The VC also made special mention of the following:

• Professor Solomon Magano, who was previously Acting Vice-Principal of Institutional Development, was recently elevated to a permanent role in that position.
• Professor Malik Maaza, the most widely read Unisa academic, and incumbent of the UNESCO-Unisa Africa Chair in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, was recently offered an opportunity by a university in the United Arab Emirates to further his scientific expertise. “But,” he said, “I declined the offer. I believe I have much to contribute here at Unisa, especially in fulfilling the mandates of the catalytic niche areas.”
• The VC announced that Unisa is ranked ninth among South African universities in terms of the number of staff who have PhDs.

Professor Malik Maaza, distinguished academic and incumbent of the UNESCO-Unisa Africa Chair in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Concluding the second day of the Lekgotla, the VC highlighted the ongoing commitment of the university’s management and the departments they lead to continuously position the university as a leading open, distance and e-learning institution delivering excellent education for a new generation of students. At the same time, the university’s management are continuously upgrading their knowledge in order to remain abreast of the best global teaching and learning practices.

* By Godfrey Madibane, Acting Journalist, Department of Institutional Advancement

** Photography by Shooheima Champion, Multimedia Centre