Page 94 - UniZulu Annual Report 2020

• Holy Cross Hospice comprises an orphanage and a hospice catering for the terminally ill. Pro bono accounting compilation services are performed for the organisation by Mr T. Mthimkhulu and Prof. Livingstone audits the financial reports free of charge. Various other CE initiatives performed by the Accounting and Audit Department include annual audits of non-profit organisations (NPOs), ad hoc tax exemption registrations for public benefit organisations (PBOs), ad hoc financial accountability guidance for bodies such as Business Networking International (BNI), Rotary, schools and other charities.
• The Department of Law continues with its Law Clinic, assisting the public with regard to legal issues. They also host an annual legal advice day that is open to the community.
• The South African Breweries (SAB) Foundation seed funding competition round 2 has closed. Members of the Faculty of Commerce, Administration and Law as well as Science and Agriculture are in the process of selecting students to develop their projects with the R15 000 seed funding from SAB.
• In the Department of Business Management, Dr Zhou has been working with the Certified Financial Analyst Institute of South Africa as a volunteer. He leads a team of students in the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) research challenge on a yearly basis and is currently involved in that competition.
• The Department of Law is in collaboration with the Faculty of Science and Agriculture on a CE project that is a community-centred collaborative intervention for DM/ COVID-19 in the King Cetshwayo District in KwaZulu- Natal. The main aim of this project is to collaboratively develop community-centred strategies for DM/ COVID-19, with a specific emphasis on healthy living in rural areas by using a participatory-action learning-action research methodology.
• Mr Mtshengu from Economics, Mr Sipho Nkonde from Business Management and Miss A. Xolisile from Law were being trained by the Wadhwani Foundation to become competent to train students at the University in the fundamentals of entrepreneurship. Students will attain entrepreneurial skills and be certified. This tool is an online mechanism with different entrepreneurship modules.
• Professor Kaseeram, the Deputy-Dean of Research and Innovation, has made it his purpose to ensure that all
community-based research has some spin-offs regarding the dissemination of data to these communities once studies are completed.
SPECIFIC PROJETCS
The Department of Science Access has been conducting departmental research on the performance of Science Access students over the past 10 years, which is ongoing although the challenge has been in getting data for analysis. In the Department of Agriculture, Dr F.N. Fon is evaluating online assessment formativeness and ease of accessibility using a Digestive Physiology class in the 4IR era at UNIZULU.
Over the past three years, staff from the Economics Department have been actively involved with joint projects with the Faculty of Education and the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Basic Education (KZNDBE).
Since 2012, Mr Mtshengu has been active in promoting student entrepreneurship at the University. Since the inception of Entrepreneurship Development in Higher Education (EDHE) in 2018 within the tertiary education terrain, Mr Mtshengu, as one of the co-ordinators, has been working with the Business Management Department in promoting student entrepreneurship on campus through this forum. EDHE hosts a major competition in four major categories: business idea, technology, social impact and general. The competition is held at a local, provincial and then national level. Last year, he was instrumental in organising the Northern KZN leg of the competition that comprised 30 entrants, all of whom were UNIZULU students. With the help of adjudicators, they were shortlisted to 11 finalists. He organised local entrepreneurs to serve as adjudicators. Those shortlisted submitted three- minute pitching videos and PowerPoint slides, summarising their idea/existing business. A winner and a second place were selected from the 11 finalists for each of the four categories. Six of the winners went to the second round of the competition at the regional level where the contestants comprised students from UNIZULU, UKZN, DUT and MUT. In the regional round, there is only one winner for each category. UNIZULU student Mr Lethukuthula Sibiya won in the Existing Business – Social Impact category, who then went on to represent KZN in the finals. Mr Mtshengu was central in the management of the entire campaign, including the securing of resources for the various stages of the competition. Dr Vezi-Magigaba acts as mentor for the project.
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