Incentivising for achievement
As part of our strategy to encourage high performance and harness the productive energies of our staff, we offer performance incentives that are attractive and sustainable and are applied fairly and consistently.
We use integrated performance management to recognise superior organisational, team and individual performance.
Remuneration mix aligned to strategy
Market-related remuneration is essential for recruiting and retaining the best staff. By aligning our remuneration strategy to the overall NWU strategy, business drivers and values, we ensure a good skills and culture fit.
Our remuneration mix has variable and fixed elements and includes monetary and non-monetary rewards. Variable pay includes performance bonuses and various value-adding allowances and is paid according to the results of individual remuneration reviews.
Annually, we do benchmarking to ensure continued competitiveness of guaranteed pay. Employees contribute 7,5% to the pension fund and can choose an employer contribution of 12%, 15%, 17,5% or 20%.
Remuneration governance and management
Through its Remuneration Committee, the NWU Council fulfils its oversight function for remuneration.
This committee understands how the income differentials between the higher and lower salary bands affect fair and responsible remuneration and contribute to the positioning of the NWU as a value-adding institution for employees and other stakeholders.
It is important to close the income differentials and to address the enhancement of salaries of academic staff. The salary increases agreed on through the collective bargaining process for 2021 supported this by building on the differentiated increase that was introduced in 2019 to cater for academic staff and staff at the lower income bands.
Executive contracts
Council oversees and approves the appointment of senior officer bearers, in line with our Statute and the Council’s rules on these appointments. The Council process applies to the appointment of the vice-chancellor, deputy vice-chancellors, the registrar, executive directors and deputy vice-chancellors for assignable functions and campus operations.
Current year incentives: University Management Committee
| Name | Basic salary | Employee benefits | Other allowance payments |
Total cost to NWU 2021 |
| R'000 | ||||
| Prof RJ Balfour | 2 153 185.80 | 205 660.75 | 317 872.99 | 2 676 719.54 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prof DM Balia | 1 983 671.90 | 349 365.32 | 239 734.63 | 2 572 771.85 |
| Dr JS Chalufu | 1 770 654.91 | 149 144.28 | 149 505.04 | 2 069 304.23 |
| Ms E de Beer | 2 398 472.74 | 221 028.13 | 735 026.92 | 3 354 527.79 |
| Prof LA du Plessis | 2 176 499.41 | 233 269.78 | 233 269.78 | 3 264 567.68 |
| Prof ND Kgwadi | 3 841 364.90 | 310 506.76 | 1 562 023.73 | 5 713 895.39 |
| Mr C Manoko | 1 880 858.59 | 183 961.40 | 223 857.03 | 2 288 677.02 |
| Prof MJ Mphahlele* | 1 091 401.81 | 95 604.94 | 59 585.54 | 1 246 592.29 |
| Prof BMP Setlalentoa* | 876 499.37 | 65 966.41 | 1 158 287.03 | 2 100 752.81 |
| Dr M Singh | 2 030 149.07 | 170 077.68 | 265 434.08 | 2 465 660.83 |
| Prof S Swanepoel* | 839 413.67 | 164 578.90 | 643 311.38 | 1 647 303.95 |
| Prof MM Verhoef | 2 405 883.91 | 231 304.09 | 700 372.49 | 3 337 560.49 |
| Prof FB Waanders* | 875 000.00 | – | 143 787.98 | 1 018 787.98 |
| Grand total | 24 323 056.08 | 2 380 468.44 | 7 053 597.33 | 33 757 121.85 |
appointed from July 2021
until May 2021 (Leave pay-out in October 2021)
acting as deputy vicechancellor
May 2021 until December 2021
acting until July 2021
External members’ fees
The remuneration of members of Council and Council committees comprises an honorarium paid as a token of our gratitude for their time and effort. The honorarium, paid in August and December, is linked to our annual cost of living adjustment (COLA) process and approved by Council’s Executive Committee.
Honoraria payments (gross remuneration to Council members) in 2021:
| Council member | R’000 |
| Ms UA Davey Baravalle | 31 203 |
| Ms S Britz | 20 802 |
|---|---|
| Prof AL Combrink | 65 873 |
| Mr JDS de Bruyn | 51 165 |
| Rev PD Dinkebogile | 71 134 |
| Mr XV Hadebe | 8 728 |
| Ms RA Kenosi | 32 100 |
| Council member | R’000 |
| Mr TC Kgomo | 67 788 |
|---|---|
| Adv Mr Kruger | 13 868 |
| Dr D Laufs | 6 934 |
| Mr CS Mabe | 68 621 |
| Mr SM Mohapi | 29 516 |
| Mr TV Mokgatlha | 54 689 |
| Mr OE Mongale | 97 133 |
| Mr CP Mulder | 38 137 |
| Adv PG Seleka | 10 401 |
| Mr LE Seliane | 19 955 |
| Ms T Semane | 45 071 |
| Mr AM Sorgdrager | 272 599 |
| MS E Stander | 19 122 |
| Mr MSJ Thabethe | 79 079 |
| Mr PM Tlhabanyane | 27 736 |
| Mr MB Tyobeka | 319 430 |
| Mr WA Van Rooy | 24 269 |
| Ms M Van Zyl | 19 122 |
| Grand total | 1 494 475 |
The NWU Council appointed Prof Sonia Swanepoel as new deputy vice-chancellor for community engagement and Mahikeng Campus operations.
“I would like to create a conducive environment for students and staff on campus,” says Prof Swanepoel. She adds that building a sustainable relationship with the Mahikeng Student Campus Council is one of her top priorities.
She will also devote much time to building the NWU’s community engagement portfolio – a platform through which both the university and its communities create a win-win situation.
Prof Swanepoel, who has a DCom degree in human resources management, is a registered industrial psychologist. In her previous leadership role at the NWU she was the executive dean of the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences.
Prof Sonia Swanepoel is the new deputy vice-chancellor for community engagement and Mahikeng Campus operations.
Organisational culture
For the past three years, the NWU has been focusing on building an inclusive, enabling and welcoming environment and organisational culture.
Two of the milestones in this journey, known as The NWU Way, was reached in February 2020, when the NWU Culture Baseline Report was finalised, and in July 2020, when the Organisational Citizenship Behaviour Project (OCBP) was launched.
The latter project gauged how staff and students understand the values of the university and experience them in their everyday lives.
Celebrating values-driven behaviour is a crucial part of building a unifying organisational culture and, with this in mind, we launched the NWU Culture Celebration project. Its aims are to celebrate the culture journey completed so far, to identify examples of exemplary values-driven behaviour and to measure stakeholders’ current perceptions of valuesbased behaviours.
In a key success for the Culture Celebration project, the NWU values were revised and approved. The revised values are:
In distinguishing the NWU from other institutions competing for talent, our comprehensive talent management strategy is critical.
Components of this strategy are an employee value proposition that increases engagement and belonging, competitive compensation and a programme for the recruitment and retention of scarce and critical skills.
