CETA-funded beneficiary tops PDBA class at Gibs

Her latest accomplishment is to finish top of her class in the postgraduate diploma in business administration (PDBA) at the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs), in a programme funded by the Construction Education and Training Authority (CETA).

Her life mantra, displayed as her WhatsApp status is: “Distraction leads to deception, deception leads to dislocation, dislocation leads to disruption.”

It is taken from renowned evangelist Bishop Dale Bronner’s sermon and means that if you are distraction from your purpose, it can lead you to be deceived by life’s temptation and once dislocated from your path, it can ruin your life, career, and family life.

“For me it highlights the importance of having a stubborn and resolute focus regardless of what life throws at you.” says Mosia.

“ What looks like a small distraction can lead you into a negative chain, you can easily entangle yourself in a web that you do not know how to get out of.”

It is this single-minded determination that allows her to juggle her work as a programme manager at the Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies (TIPS) in Pretoria, running her ministry with her husband, Bonngwe Mosia, whom he credits for support and running their household with two small children and juggling studies which following the PDBA, now involves taking on an MBA in October.

The fourth of five children and the first to graduate in her family, Mosia was born in Makhubung village outside Mahikeng in the North West.

After completing her high school in Mmabatho, she studied at the University of Cape Town (UCT), where she obtained a BSc in Construction Studies in 2008, followed by an Honours the year after and an MSc in Project Management in 2012.

For the CETA-funded programme, she was alerted by a friend and former colleague and promptly applied for a four-month International Executive Development Programme.

It was literally while undergoing orientation in April 2024 that she learnt that she will be doing a yearlong programme that requires her to attend class one week every month.

Mosia, 39, believes this was divine intervention as she may never have agreed to such a commitment willingly given her work and ministry.

She has now seen it through with flying colours.

She notes that her favourite part of the program was doing immersion in Dubai, Shenzhen in China and Hong Kong as these gave her firsthand experience of how other countries do business and transform cities as well as the value of strong leadership and commitment to development.

CETA funds such programmes to help build leadership not just for the South African built environment but for the broader corporate sector.

“My goal when I joined the programme was to facilitate my transition from technical roles to more strategic and executive roles and I am ready for it.” says Mosia.

Mosia says between a full-time job, studying, raising small kids, and co-leading a church ministry with her husband, she does not get to have much time left to herself.

The two activities that “ignite her soul” are ballroom dancing, which she has not done in years, and completing a road race, which she cannot do consistently but compensates for it with daily walks.

She has time to occasionally read for pleasure and counts John Maxwell as among her favourite authors for his bible centered philosophy on leadership.

CETA, with its aim to provide skills development services to the construction sector and implement the objectives of the National Skills Development Strategy, plays a crucial role in ensuring that the construction sector is equipped with the critical and scarce skills necessary for economic sustainability and global competitiveness.

The CETA officially entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the University of Pretoria’s Gordon Institute of Business Science (Gibs) in 2024 to foster collaboration and strengthen the South African construction and built-environment sector.

In terms of the MOU, Gibs will design and deliver specialised learning programmes tailored to the needs of professionals within the construction sector.

These programmes span from entrepreneurial development to executive leadership development programme, and engage in thought-leadership, research, and skills planning.

CETA chief executive Malusi Shezi says the construction Seta aims to train 120 women to occupy key positions within the construction industry.

“We have made it clear that 60% of the beneficiaries of the international executive development programme is women. This was to ensure that women occupy key positions within the construction sector, which was traditionally dominated by men, says Shezi.

“We did not want a situation where companies would say we are not hiring women because we cannot find them. We have now made it possible for them to put women in key executive positions. We made sure we increase the pool so that there is no reason for companies not to transform. Women deserve to be given opportunities.”

Professor Morris Mthombeni, dean of GIBS, says collaborative partnerships with institutions such as CETA hold immense value “as they enable us to collectively develop innovative solutions for the skills challenges facing our nation.”