NWU Business School

Interview with Prof Remiguisz Gawlik, from the Economic University of Cracow, Poland. He has a wide knowledge of Geo Politics on an international level. Specifically, his focus is on International investments and the effect of Geo Politics on this.

In this bon interview, the NWU Business School’s Prof Hein Prinsloo discussed Africa's Geo Political tendencies, and effects on possible considered international investments.

Beside Africa, Prof Gawlik also elaborated on the difference between the West and the East's approaches to investment in Africa, Europe's guilt and Russia's growing interest. He further elaborated by indicating that, although there are current Geo Political unease all over Africa, "Africa is only starting now"…and he would like to be on that "boat", when it takes off.

World Water Day was established by the United Nations (UN) in 1993 as an international day to highlight the importance of safe water and brings awareness to the world water crisis.

Today, the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 6 aims to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all” by the year 2030.

Every day in rural communities throughout sub-Saharan Africa, millions of people suffer from a lack of access to clean, safe water. For school-aged children it's a burden that traps them in poverty.

Globally, 1 in 9 people still have no access to clean water. But in the some communities we serve, it's 9 out of 9. Water is a daily and crippling challenge. Without water you can't grow food, you can't build housing, you can't stay healthy, you can't stay in school and you can't keep working.

Today, over half of the developing world's primary schools without access to water and sanitation.

The NWU Business School's Prof Anet Smit has a discussion with Prof Lobina Palamuleni, water conservation expert, on these issues.

Zimbabwe is a country rating high on the literacy scale in Africa. Despite several poor post-colonial decisions on the political and economical fronts, Zimbabwe retained their high level of education.

According to UNESCO Zimbabwe has an adult literacy rate of 88.69%. Male literacy rate is 89.19% and for females the figure is 88.28%. Compared globally, this rates favourably as no. 88 in the ranking of country rate. It is even more important to note that the Zimbabwean literacy rate has increased in recent years.

Regarding business education, Zimbabwean first degrees encompass four academic years. It is also common to have an experience component as part of the degree. How is Zimbabwe holding up in their education system, and then specifically with their business education.

Load-shedding, international exposure and shortages in international currency are a few challenges to overcome.

Today, in the NWU Business School's outreach in Africa, Prof Christo Bisschoff interviews Dr Noel Muzondo, a senior lecturer in the Department of Business Studies at the University of Zimbabwe to discuss the challenges and opportunities of Zimbabwean business education today.

Dr Muzondo, a proud doctoral alumnus of the NWU Business School, sheds some light as to how the university succeeded to overcome the load-shedding issues and how they deal with personal and institutional challenges to retain their record of quality Zimbabwean education despite all the challenges.

The video discussion was focused on the social and economic disruptions induced by the COVID-19 pandemic on small businesses in Kenya. Dr. Mary Mwanzia explains that an estimated two million more Kenyans have been pushed into poverty and the COVID-19 shocks have has led Kenya's economy to contract in the 4th quarter of 2020 by -0.3%.

This interview was important in that, it shines the light on how Covid-19 has led to the closure of many small businesses in Kenya. These businesses are mostly in the informal sector and such closures have exacerbated the poverty conditions of millions of Kenyans.

As explained by Dr Mwanzia, data from two parallel rapid response surveys conducted by the World Bank and partners in Kenya confirms that informal businesses are facing extreme risks due to lower demand for products and inputs. This situation is further compounded by disruptions in supply chains, travel restrictions, limiting access to intermediate goods, labor and sales channels. Small businesses are also face with non-access to cash and credit.

Dr Mwannzia explained that in the phase of these challenges, the Kenyan government have development some SMART strategies as it respond to mitigate the impact of this pandemic on Kenya’s people. According to her, these strategies to an extent have mellow the impact of this pandemic on small businesses across Kenya to a certain degree.

Ms Matlhapelo Chirwa is a HR business partner in at Hollard Life. She has 14 years’ expertise on all HR related issues. She deals with people management, recruitment, HR projects, performance management, talent management, employee related matters, etc. She completed her BCom degree and furthered her studies in labour law.

In this interview, Ms Chirwa indicated that all businesses should have a strategy and that they should set targets for their workforce. "It is therefore important to have at least 3 goals and workers need to focus on key performance areas in order to achieve their goals. This process should be monitored throughout to determine if workers achieved set goals. It is important in a business that there should be proper values in place and that businesses should make morally correct choices. Sales people should also be assisted to achieve their goals if they did not make their sales and should be supported by the HR person to improve if need be. It is important that there should be a platform for the workforce where they can get guidance."

Fusi Motaung is a human resource practitioner and manager. He has been working in this field for 15 years and has published his book on this topic in 2021. He specialises in resources management and social and labour plans.

It entails human resources from an employee, a community, political and government relational perspective. He oversees integrative development plans at municipalities, businesses and other stakeholders to ensure that they comply with the standards. He also focusses on work readiness for graduates and young professionals.

In this interview, Mr Motaung offered valuable input and stated that we need to teach young people the culture of work. "After graduation or leaving school, they are not ready for work and need assistance." He suggested that mentorship is important and that young people need to be motivated to get a mentor from an early age. He also expressed the concern that these cohort of people do not have the necessary soft skills to survive in the workplace.

"They might have the education, but the world of work and the world of their educational background are worlds apart. This creates problems and may lead to failure in the workplace."

He suggested that Africans need to raise their hands when there is a job opportunity and that they should not wait for someone to knock on their doors. His final view is that we need to work on our networking skills and that collaboration with other stakeholders are essential in order to create opportunities for people as we have the talent and the skills in our country.

Tshepo Matemane is originally from Tzaneen. He studied at the Limpopo University in Microbiology and continued his work as a clinical researcher and site monitor. He assists with investigations and is currently responsible for three clinical trials in Africa.

He works and assists with difficult data and regulations with six other countries in Africa. He has extensive experience as he travels to various countries in Africa, including Zambia, Ghana, Kenia, Malawi. He is passionate and has the skills and resources to assist the African continent.

Mr Matemane has extensive experience in clinical research and working with various infections diseases including TB, Malaria and Covid-19. He travels a lot and visits deep rural areas in South Africa as well as other African countries. The impact of the UN-2063 protocols - to improve the continent, poses a challenge to the continent and to all involved.

Mr. Sam Mashele is an experienced marketing communication professional with over 9 years’ experience in his field. He is currently employed as a Public Relations Consultant at First National Bank, servicing key portfolios within the retail and commercial banking units. His responsibilities include developing and implementing communication plans, media relations, stakeholder engagement, reputation management and profiling of spokespeople in the media.

In this interview, he focused on the importance of stakeholder relationships, marketing and offering support to small businesses. He stressed that the public image of a business is important and that business should focus more on online platforms. He mentioned that in this process, businesses should be aware of scams and this could sacrifice the credibility, bank account of a business.

Mr Pabalelo MasThe importance of using automated systems for fraud detectionhisi is a Business Intelligence Analyst for a mining company in Mpumalanga. He analyses day-to-day data to extract valuable data which can be useful for decision making in the finance department. He processes income statements which runs on a monthly basis as a report, with no manual calculations required. For stock control, this company uses automated stock sheets for reporting that runs on a daily basis to monitor stock, using tables and graphs to display the data.

The experience he has gained, and networking he has done, allowed for possibilities of using his skills and technological tools to detect fraud in especially stock control. These fraudulent activities can then be immediately reported, using triggers, which would then be emailed to the relevant personnel, informing them on where the fraud is committed in order to start with an investigation process.

The interviewee stressed the importance of working on a computerised system when doing accounting. This is important as it will save time and it will also contribute to pick up fraudulent activities on time. If businesses are not aware on online systems, there could be mistakes and this will have a major implication with SARS. Should these not be picked up, it could lead to forensic investigations and auditors might detect irregularities with far reaching consequences for a business. Business owners should be hands-on in their systems and should always consult with someone who has experience with stock controls and auditing of books.

Mr Kgotso Mohlomi works for Heineken as a sales representative. He focuses on various market shares and how to win different market shares in his trade. To be successful he needs to get a high presentation of shares for his company. He looks at the dominating market and visibility of the product. He works in a wide area in his business that includes rural, deep-rural and urban areas. Therefore, he visits many businesses and have on ongoing hands-on impact in what he does.