The Southern African Institute of Business Accountants (SAIBA) is excited to announce that Professor Dovhani Reckson Thakhathi has been appointed as its Executive President.

 

Currently a Full Professor in the Department of Public Administration at the University of Fort Hare, he comes with a bank of academic credentials and an impressive community-oriented record.

 

Prof Thakhathi obtained his Doctoral degree in Public Administration from Unisa in 1993 and has since worked at a number of universities, including Venda as Full Professor, HOD, Dean and Deputy Vice-Chancellor from 1999-2003; Limpopo as the MPA Programme Manager; and the University of Fort Hare as Dean of the faculty of Management and Commerce.

 

He has a wealth of experience in chairing boards and councils and has published articles and chapters in books, as well as presented over 100 conference papers – mostly in the arena of leadership development -  nationally and internationally. He has led a number of projects in South Africa, facilitated many workshops and won several academic and leadership awards. Valued for his eloquence and ability to motivate audiences, he has visited 30 countries as a speaker.

 

Prof Thakhathi has contributed to the development of about 15 Phd candidates and more than 20 Masters students. He is also serving as an external examiner for many local universities as well as similar learning institutions in Zimbabwe and India. He is a bona fide elder of Christ the Seed of Hope Ministries which is based in East London, with branches in Tanzania and Alice, Australia.

 

His wife,  Mashudu, is head pastor of this new church and also a lecturer of Nursing Science at the University of Fort Hare, East London campus.

 

Born and bred in Makhado, Venda, Prof Thakhathi has earned much recognition, including, inter alia, as the best academic student of the University of Venda in 1982, being the representative of South African universities and technikons during the SADEC Human Resources Department Summit in 1996, and the African and South African delegate at the Commonwealth conference on “Education for All” in the Fiji islands.

 

Amongst the many commissions, task teams and projects on which he has served, are the Nelson Mandela Presidential Review Commission on the size and shape of the public service, the UNDP Service Delivery on Health Project in Limpopo and the German Technical Corporation project in Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape focusing on local government administration. He pioneered the establishment of the Public Service Trainers’ Forum, one of the biggest bodies of its kind in the public sector, serving as president from its inception till 1999 when he left the public service to return to academia.

 

With an Executive President who harbours such great passion for leadership development and a vision to making SAIBA an affordable, accessible and attainable organisation, SAIBA is confident they will continue to be the fastest growing professional body representing accountants and finance professionals in SA.  And that its members and the accounting and financial industries in general, will benefit greatly from his vast experience and vision for the challenging years ahead.