Building for the future

Regaining the trust of communities

The Premier of the North West, Professor Job Mokgoro, brings a unique perspective to a tough assignment.

In 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 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

North West Provincial Government

administration would purposely prioritise concerns relating to insufficient and ineffective delivery of services, waste of public resources, corruption and poor leadership, among other issues.

“As we recognise the urgent need to develop and sustain a culture of good ethical and moral values within the public service, we also acknowledge that the cost to society associated with unethical conduct in government is enormously huge. It therefore remains our collective responsibility to correct the shortcomings as identified across the provincial government and commit to working tirelessly to restore stability and certainty in our province,” Premier Mokgoro stated on the day of his inauguration.

“Occupying a position of leadership is no opportunity for self-enrichment; the needs of the people of this province are greater than an individual’s interest,” the new Premier added. Premier Mokgoro also warned public servants against all acts of misconduct such as loitering and not showing up for work, emphatically stating that “the party is over”. Mokgoro cautioned those responsible for ensuring consequence management and consistently failing to do so, saying they are as guilty as the perpetrators themselves.

The Executive Council of the North West Province met soon after Professor Mokgoro’s selection as Premier and resolved to make every effort to improve the service delivery drive in all spheres of government.

The Executive received a report that analysed the policies of the current administration and the extent to which they are in alignment with national government policies and the Mid-Term Strategic Framework. The report confirmed that the content of the provincial policies is in alignment with national policies but that some of the wording used is different. The Executive resolved that the province should align with the vocabulary of the national framework.

Studying and teaching

After growing up in the Northern Cape town of Kimberley, Professor Mokgoro began his university career simultaneously with his political

career. The study of medicine at the University of Natal brought the young activist into conflict with security policeman and he spent a year in jail.

A fellow medical student, Steve Biko, was to die at the hands of the security police. Professor Mokgoro took up his studies at Fort Hare University where he gained a Bachelor of Science degree in 1971.

After a spell teaching biology, mathematics and physical science at St Boniface High School, Kimberley, Professor Mokgoro took on a research task with the Chamber of Mines (today the Minerals Council SA) looking into the implications of mechanisation on human resources in the mining industry, a topic that is still relevant today. Three years as a Psychological Assessor at a psychiatric hospital followed, after which he became a lecturer and academic administrator at the University of Bophuthatswana. Over the next decade, Professor

Mokgoro would teach public policy, public finance and policy reforms. He served as Head of Department for one year. Prior to his lecturing responsibilities, he was involved with the administration of academic programmes, examinations and admissions.

It was during this time that Professor Mokgoro studied for and obtained his Bachelor of Public Administration (Honours) from the University of the North West and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Toledo, Ohio (USA). An honorary doctorate in Public Administration was awarded to Professor Mokgoro by Toledo in 2001.

In the early 1990s, Professor Mokgoro consulted to a large number of organisations including the Cape Town City Council and the World Bank.

Professor Mokgoro moved on to the University of the Western Cape where he was responsible for starting the School of Government – from inception to implementation, which takes us to the year before South Africa became a democracy, and when Professor Mokgoro was called to serve in the North West.

Public service

Professor Mokgoro’s tenure as Associate Director, Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA), Centre for Policy

Analysis and Information, lasted just three months. The date of March 1994 meant a new beginning for South Africa and a new career path for Mokgoro. He was called on to be the democratic era’s first Director-General, North West Provincial Government, a position which he held from April 1994 to October 1999. The provincial administration had an annual budget of R7-billion and covered a geographical area with over 3.5-million inhabitants.

The next career move saw Professor Mokgoro retain the title of Director-General, but this time it was of the South African Management Development Institute, which he ran until 2003. The South African Management Development Institute (SAMDI) is a government institute responsible for the development of managers in the public service. As the Director-General, he oversaw a staff complement of 140 people.

Professor Mokgoro has done stints as a part-time lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand, the University of Fort Hare and the University of Pretoria.

In the years between 2003 and 2007, he did many consulting tasks. Clients included the Association of Vice Chancellors of Historically Disadvantaged Tertiary Institutions in South Africa (ASHADI), Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (CAPAM), Department for International Development (DFID), Development Policy Management Forum (DPMF), the Graduate Institute of Business Science (GIBS) and the European Union.

Looking forward to the future.