The Board confirms appointment of two new members

At the Annual General Meeting of USAf, the Chairperson, Professor Thandwa Mthembu, confirmed the appointment to the Board of Directors, of, namely, Dr Bernard Nthambeleni, newly-appointed Vice-Chancellor of the University of Venda, and Professor Tawana Kupe, new Vice-Chancellor of the University of Pretoria.  The Board applauded these developments and welcomed their new peers.

The USAf Board welcomed into their midst, Professor Tawana Kupe (left) and Dr Bernard Nthambeleni, new vice-chancellors of the University of Pretoria and University of Venda, respectively.

Decisions concerning governance committees

The Board also made several decisions concerning some of its governance committees as detailed below.

• Finance and Investment Committee

The Board approved three revisions proposed regarding the Finance and Investment Committee in the Committee’s Terms of Reference – as presented by the Committee Chair, Prof Francis Petersen. The first proposal pertained to the amendment of the committee membership from six to five members in keeping with a provision made in USAf’s Memorandum of Incorporation. The second amendment was an addition to the responsibilities of the Committee while the third was an addition to responsibilities pertaining to Investment.

• Audit and Risk Committee

The Board also formally signed off USAf’s:

• Financial statements for the period ended 31 December 2018 as audited by PwC and
• The Internal Audit Report as presented to the Audit and Risk Committee.

They also applauded the USAf Office for another clean audit for 2018.

• Admissions Committee and the Matriculation Board

The Board agreed to this Committee’s recommendation to include in an envisaged meeting with the returning Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, an appraisal on progress realised to date on the Dissolution of the Committee of Principals (CUP), Committee of Technikon Principals (CTP) and the Matriculation Board and related issues in terms of S74 of the HE Act 101 of 1997, and to request further direction on the status of previous decisions.

The Board further endorsed the increase by 6% to exemption fees for 2020.