Message from Manie Lombard, Chief Director Finance

I want to start by welcoming all the new people who joined the Finance team this year. I hope you are settling in nicely, feel welcome and had a good experience of teamwork, support, service, and learning.

We are now near the end of an extraordinary 2023 with changes that, for most of us, only happen once in our work life - the go-live of our new financial system on 26 July 2023. You achieved this through teamwork, agility, a mindset of continuous improvement, and living up to the guiding theme for the Responsibility Centre - operational excellence. Well done to everyone! 

We had several challenges or mountains throughout this year, severe loadshedding, Oracle Cloud Financials (OCF) go-live, the extended timeline for SUNStudent implementation project, NSFAS capping of accommodation fees and direct payments and governance issues, economic upheaval, and the impact on personal finances, cuts in government grants and subsidies, geopolitical instability with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the unpredictability of everything these days. But we also experienced the quality of South Africans working together, communities supporting each other after flooding, fires, and other local disasters, and the 2023 Rugby World Cup results.

The Division successfully delivers on the set and approved goals for the year, these are:

·      ensuring financial sustainability;

·      SUNFin went live on 26 July 2023, and we finished the hyper care period and reported to the Rectorate that the implementation project was successfully delivered;

·      the SUNFin training and support tool – Oracle Guided Learning (OGL) went live as part of the OCF go-live on 26 July 2023;

·      the alignment of the current Finance structure with best practice processes and workflows to enhance the OCF solution was done with the peromnes evaluations that will now follow after the updating of the individual work agreements, monitored by the divisional heads. Bonus payments will also be discussed with IT and the Registrar to ensure proper alignment between the divisions to ensure parity;

·      SUNStudent's implementation for Student Financial Services is on the cards for the beginning of 2024, followed by an agreed phased-basis according to the approved implementation project plan;

·      Student Financial Services development and communication is according to plan with integration of undergraduate bursaries and the focus on bursary and NSFAS support;

·      the further evolution of the Budget Model, including Type 3-centres, Hybrid Learning, Reserve and Balance Funds, and Student Fee regulation, according to planning; and

·      with regards to the wellness of staff, Shibu and Melanie of HR arranged a special support session to offer staff a reflective space after going through the SUNFin transition. The staff wellness is monitored for further support.

·      We have also facilitated the successful 2022 year-end and annual report with an unqualified audit report. Everyone is kindly requested to support the 2023 year-end, external audit, and report to ensure another clean and unqualified audit report. This is a very important element of the international rating of SU to attract growing international funding.

We are also focusing monthly in our divisional heads meeting on risk management, approved strategy implementation plans, staff development and transformation, communication, and progress with our language implementation plan.

In Prof Stan's first Gazette for 2023 he mentioned that someone says that the only way one could really change something in South Africa, is to disrupt but he would rather like to think that we at Stellenbosch University would like to create the future we aspire to, the university of the future which will be more flexible, personalised, collaborative, and technology-driven than traditional universities. A place where we will prioritise the development of critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving skills, which are essential for success in an increasingly complex and rapidly changing world. From Finance side we indicated that this is the year of SUNFin.

In the second Gazette, Prof Stan focused on the African philosophy of Ubuntu - "I am because we are" with the philosophy speaking to the fact that we are all connected and one can only thrive if those around you also thrive. Annemi also led with the Disney theme to say goodbye to Tera in a dress-up in front of Admin B with champagne pops for moving to OCF. I recently saw that Oracle Cloud ERP for Service-Centric Enterprises was again rated no 1 in the Gartner Magic Quadrant survey. An invite to a very relevant Oracle Webinar thereafter indicated that corporate planning is difficult in the best of times, but the current challenges or mountains indicated earlier, or Polycrisis as it is now called, make it even harder and therefore in these times of uncertainty, you cannot only rely on historical trends to predict the future. However, technology, such as OCF, is now seen as a useful aid for effective planning.

In the third Gazette there was a big thank you for the successful women's day for the RC arranged by Maties Sport. The remarkable guest speaker Saray Khumalo talked about how she summitted Mount Everest on 16 May 2019 after three previous attempts where she endured the most horrific disasters – first an avalanche, then an earthquake, and then, being left to die in a torn tent in the death zone. Saray just climbed higher every time until she reached her goal. An extraordinary example of perseverance until you reach your goal.

There was the final SUNFin celebration on 28 August at Tokara for the successful go-live of OCF where I referred to the saying that victory as with the SUNFin implementation, seldom comes through a few glorious actions but through perseverance, similar to Saray's experience. What seemed impossible in April 2019, when we started on the SUNFin journey, was possible through your commitment and perseverance. We also conquered and overcame the challenges and mountains. You, the team, have persevered and taken ownership of the project that will take Stellenbosch University's accounting system to new frontiers. We can already see the benefits of electronic workflow and Projects and Grants, to name a few. There is huge appreciation expressed by the Rectorate and there is understanding of the initial user experience, where frustrations are voiced, but as we progress and with the support provided, we are seeing an increased acceptance of the new OCF solution.

I would like to thank each member of our Finance Team for everything you have done to make this an extraordinary year and Stellenbosch University an exceptional place to work for. Have a wonderful break and I am looking forward to team-up again and working with you in the New Year!​

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