PROFILE
Regaining the trust of communities The Premier of the North West, Professor Job Mokgoro, brings a unique perspective to a tough assignment.
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n June 2018, a new Premier was sworn in for the North West Province. The elevation of Professor Job Mokgoro to the key position in the provincial government brought to an end a period of uncertainty and allowed the residents of the province to look forward to the leadership of the province being able to focus on the business of government. Professor Mokgoro could be said to be uniquely qualified for this appointment, for two reasons. Firstly, he served as the NORTH WEST BUSINESS 2019
Director-General of the North West in the first months after South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994. Among his tasks was to integrate three government administrations (including homelands) into one. This hands-on experience gives him vital insight into the infrastructure (what might be called the “scaffolding”) of the area’s administrative structures. Secondly, Professor Mokgoro is both academically highly qualified and deeply experienced in public administration and public governance. He has been widely published on a broad range of topics. Among the long list of titles of his published papers are “Equity and Efficiency in the Public Service”, “Inter-Provincial Fiscal Equalisation” and “The role of Leadership in Organisational Responsiveness to Service Delivery”. His academic qualifications include Bachelor and Master's degrees in science and public administration from three universities and he was a visiting professor at Wits University’s Graduate School of Public and Development Management. When the ANC called on him to lead the province, he was the head of the North West Ikatisong School of Governance. He had been responsible for the establishment and the curriculum of this school, which forms part of the North West Administration. The selection by the African National Congress (ANC) of Professor Mokgoro to lead the province followed several weeks of sometimes violent protests within the province by citizens upset by lack of services. Mokgoro has also worked within the economic policy unit of the ANC.
Establishing priorities In one of his first speeches, Premier Mokgoro said that regaining communities’ trust in government was top of the agenda. He said that his
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