2008 Annual Report

In the area of strategic partnerships, one of the major projects we pursued in 2008 involved securing the requisite support from the Department of Science and
Technology (DST), the Free State Provincial Government and various partners in business/industry for the establishment of a Regional Innovation will help to drive
the province’s innovation strategy and will become an interface between the academe and technology transfer on the one hand, and industrial and socio-economic development on the other. We are on course to get this centre off the ground in 2009.

As was the case in 2007, the most challenging of all the tasks was that of cascading institutional restructuring down to middle management level, after the example set
by the executive management restructuring process. The sheer volume of the positions and functions involved and the potential loss of productivity and skills due to attendant uncertainties made this task substantial and complex. Disagreements and legal challenges did not allow us to start this process during the fourth quarter
of the year, as had been planned. All of the above notwithstanding, we plan to realise a saving of about 14% of the support services salary bill when the new
positions come into effect in 2009. Again, this will give us more room to reinvest these savings in the academe and other strategic priorities.