Ms Maraka Lefera
LecturerQualifications: Master’s human resources management
Short CV
Miss Lefera is an accomplished academic, researcher, and entrepreneurship practitioner with over a decade of experience in higher education, community engagement, and student development. She currently serves as Co-Faculty Advisor of Enactus at the Central University of Technology, Free State (CUT), a role she has held since 2014. Under her leadership, Enactus CUT has achieved strong national and international recognition, representing South Africa at the Enactus World Cup in Puerto Rico and the Netherlands. In 2023, the team ranked among the Top 16 teams globally at the Enactus World Cup. Maraka has received several prestigious awards for her contribution to teaching, entrepreneurship, and administration. These include Enactus South Africa Administrator of the Year (2022), Enactus South Africa Faculty Advisor of the Year (2018), and Enactus South Africa Junior Alumnus of the Year (2016). She is also a recipient of the CUT Vice-Chancellor’s Excellence Award for Community Engagement (2023) and Entrepreneurship (2024), as well as the Faculty of Management Early Teaching Award (2025), recognising excellence and innovation in teaching. Her academic interests include entrepreneurship education, strategic management, and industry-based learning, with a strong passion for bridging theory and practice to create meaningful impact.
Areas of Expertise
- • Strategic Management
- • Entrepreneurship
- • Work Integrated Learning
- • Training and Development
Publications
- • Ndlovu, C. and Lefera, M., (2024). The contributions of Enactus to South Africa's Social and Solidarity Economy: A case study of a university. Southern African Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business Management, 16(1), pp.1-11.
- • Lefera, M. & Swart, A.J. (2024). Determining the Degree of Constructive Alignment for Learning Outcomes of Two Modules in a Course on Management. Academia Lasalliana Journal of Education of Humanities, 6(1), 79-87.
- • Lefera, M. & Swart, A. J., 2021. Narrative experiences from first year students in human resources provide opportunities for an academic to reflect on self-improvement. Vienna, Global Conference on Education and Teaching.
- • Lefera, M. and Swart, A.J., 2021. Structured Reflective Feedback from Students Reveals Areas Of Academic Self-Improvement in Teaching And Learning For the Field of Management. Multicultural Education, 7(9)
- • Lefera, M. and Swart, A.J., 2020, November. Reflecting on the success of a Peer Mentorship Programme–A scholarly personal narrative. In 2020 IFEES World Engineering Education Forum-Global Engineering Deans Council (WEEF-GEDC) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
Presented Conferences, Seminars, Workshops
- • Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Conference.
- • International Conference on Interdisciplinary Studies in Education, Research & Technology.
- •
International Conference on Multidisciplinary Research.
- • International Conference on Entrepreneurship and Development (ICED).
- •
World Engineering Education Forum (WEEF).
- • Joint International Research Conference.
