Dear CUT Community

The following two appointments at Senior Management level were recently made:

SENIOR DIRECTOR: HUMAN RESOURCES

It gives me great pleasure to announce that Ms Razina Jacobs will join the CUT family as the Senior Director: Human Resources from 1 October 2020. It will be the first time in the history of CUT that a female staff member is steering human resources at the university.

Ms Jacobs is a seasoned and competent Human Resources (HR) professional with over 20 years of experience across large multinationals, leading organisational development and various HR initiatives, linking human capital to strategic business imperatives. She is a strategy architect who prides herself in developing innovative HR solutions and cost-saving programmes, with the aim of streamlining business processes and capitalising on organisational growth opportunities. Ms Jacobs holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration, and has received numerous prestigious professional accolades from her previous employers.

She has worked for a number of blue-chip companies within the telecommunication, logistics, mining, banking and financial sectors. She thus comes on board with a wealth of knowledge, skills and experience within Sub-Saharan Africa, Europe, the Middle East and India, as well as the proven ability to work with Board Members, Executives and Senior Management teams within culturally diverse environments, integrating the human resource function within the overall business operating strategy, and balancing and aligning the needs of employees with the organisation’s vision, mission and values.
Please join me in welcoming Ms Razina Jacobs to CUT. We wish her everything of the very best as she leads the CUT HR team in trailblazing the CUT “Human Project” during these extremely volatile, increasingly uncertain, deeply complex and highly ambiguous times within the South African and global Higher Education sectors.

UNIVERSITY LIBRARIAN

I am also delighted to inform you that Ms Keitumetse Eister has been appointed as the CUT University Librarian with effect from 1 October 2020. It will be another ‘first’ in the history of CUT that a Black female staff member is steering our Library and Information centres at the university.

Ms Eister was born and bred in Thaba ‘Nchu. She attended the St Anne’s Girls High School before joining Fort Hare University, where she obtained a Library and Information Science Degree in 1987. Furthermore, she obtained a Higher Diploma in Education (HDE) in 1995 from Vista (Bloemfontein); a Library and Information Science Honours Degree in 1997 from the University of South Africa (UNISA); and graduated with a Master’s Degree in Information Studies from the University of Johannesburg (previously Rand Afrikaans University) in 2001.

Ms Eister has a meticulous employment record ranging from College Librarian and Lecturer in Librarianship at the Department of Education, Bophuthatswana; Lecturer in School Librarianship at Vista University; Assistant Director: Regional Library at Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation, Bloemfontein; Director: Library Services at North-West University (Mafikeng campus); and most recently as Director: Library and Information Services at the University of Free State, where she has been employed for 10 years. During her career, Ms Eister has been very instrumental in developing the staff who report to her by assisting them to improve their qualifications at all levels.

Please join me in welcoming Ms Keitumetse Eister to the CUT family, and wishing her everything of the very best as she leads the Library and Information centres at both the Bloemfontein and Welkom campuses, envisioning to develop 21st century libraries that embrace opportunities brought about by the digital technologies. Ms Eister is an experienced leader and professional library and information scientist, and the right person to ensure that the right information gets to the right people at the right time.

On behalf of the entire university community, I would like to wish Ms Jacobs and Ms Eister all of the best during their tenures as Senior Director: HR and University Librarian, respectively. I kindly request you to warmly welcome both of them in their new positions, and to provide them and their families with all the necessary support to successfully execute their duties.

Kind regards / Ditumediso tse mofuthu / Vriendelike groete

Prof. Henk de Jager
Vice-Chancellor and Principal

Read VC Communique, 30 September 2020 (PDF)