College of Business and Economics | Annual Report 2023 62 CENTRE FOR PUBLIC MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE OVERVIEW The Centre for Public Management and Governance is housed within the School of Public Management, Governance and Public Policy. The Centre offers two distance education continuing education programmes, namely the Higher and the Advanced Certificate in Local Governance and Management. These programmes are integrated academic and professional distance education programmes designed for students, working professionals, and elected local political leaders offered through online technology-enhanced distance learning. The programmes are popular with students as the opportunity exists for qualifying students to access the formal second year of the BA (SWC) programme. Moreover, the Centre hosts the short learning programme in 4IR which will be rolled out to students in the near future. The Centre also aims to provide collaborative services with a wide range of actors in Africa and South Africa’s developmental local government process. Despite providing limited bursaries to deserving students, the challenge of mounting student debt is a matter for concern for the Centre. TALENT MANAGEMENT The Centre has one permanent staff member, Prof Vain Jarbandhan, the Director of the Centre. Mr Thabo Baloi is the Centre administrator. The Centre has one tutor who assists students with challenges in terms of accessing their content via the UJ learning management system. Capacity building programmes undertaken in the last academic year included the training of Centre staff in the use of Blackboard, MAMS, and HEDA. POLICY, PUBLICENGAGEMENTS AND RELATED ACTIVITIES Prof Vain Jarbandhan represents the Centre at various public engagements. The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) held a two-day Indaba at the Radisson Hotel and Convention Centre in Kempton Park on 8-10 March 2023. Prof Vain Jarbandhan was part of a panel discussion titled, ‘Establishing ongoing measures to mitigate against political patronage in administrative duties within municipalities’. The panel was chaired by Mr Zolani Zonyane, the editor of Municipal Edge. Other panellists in the discussion were Prof Themba Maseko (Wits School of Government) and Prof Zweli Ndevu (Director, School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University). After the Indaba, Prof Vain Jarbandhan was invited to the launch of Local Government Professionalisation Social Compact on 18 July 2023, where he was asked to be part of the research hub that SALGA had created to navigate research based on the professionalisation of local government. The 2023 Lien International Conference themed, ‘Good Governance for the Common Good’, was hosted by the Nanyang Centre for Public Administration (NCPA) from 25-26 August 2023. The opening of the conference and keynote address was held at the Stamford Ballroom, Raffles City Convention Centre Singapore, with close to 300 delegates from across the globe. The keynote speaker was Mrs Josephine Teo, who is the Minister for Communication and Information and Second Minister for Home Affairs in Singapore. Her address focused on the pressing topic of artificial intelligence and its impact on public administration. Other speakers included Mr Desmond Tan, Minister of State Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore, and Prof Wang Shengkai who is Professor of the Belt and Road Economic Research Institute, Renmin University of China. Prof Jarbandhan chaired a session with the theme, ‘Talent Management, Education and Employment’. Prof Jarbandhan also presented a paper titled, Prof Vain Jarbandhan Director
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