Najwa Allie-Edries
Deputy Director General: Corporate Services
National Treasury
Tel: +27 12 315 5699
www.treasury.gov.za
Najwa Allie-Edries has more than 20 years’ work experience, mainly in the public sector. She is deputy director general of the Corporate Services Division of the National Treasury, involved with strategic initiatives at the senior management level within Treasury.
The areas under her leadership include human resources management, internal audit, financial administration, supply chain management, information technology, security management and facilities management. Allie-Edries has worked for the South African Labour and Development Research Unit; the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the South African Revenue Service. She has also worked with the United Nations (as special assistant to resident coordinator in the Republic of Iran) and the Canadian Labour Market and Productivity Centre. Allie-Edries holds the degree of bachelor of social science: industrial sociology and industrial psychology from the University of Cape Town and a bachelor of social science honours in industrial sociology from the same university.
Kamy Chetty
Deputy Director General
Department of Health
Tel: +27 12 312 0945
www.health.gov.za
Dr Kamy Chetty, a medical doctor, joined the department of health in 2000 as deputy director general in charge of service delivery. She obtained an MBChB degree from the University of Natal medical school in 1984 and a master of science degree in urban and regional planning in 1992. In 1993 she obtained her specialist degree in public health and became a fellow of the Faculty of Community Health of South Africa at the College of Medicine. From 1993 to 1994, she was seconded to the ANC health department, where she played a key role in the drafting of the ANC’s health plan.From 1994 to 1997 Chetty was responsible for the coordination of the Reconstruction and Development Programme in the Western Cape. In 1997 she was appointed deputy director general of the Gauteng health department and was responsible for the health service delivery branch. She stayed in this position until moving to the national health portfolio she currently holds.
Portia Molefe
Director General
Department of Public Enterprises
Tel: +27 12 431 1000
www.dpe.gov.za
Portia Molefe obtained her BSc (honours) economics at the University of Natal in 1991, before completing a management advancement programme at the University of the Witswatersrand the following year. After a central banking course at the Bank of England in 1993, she joined Standard Bank as an assistant financial economist. Between 1994 and 2001, Molefe worked in different capacities at a range of economic institutions. In January 2002, she joined the department of trade and industry as chief operating officer. A year later she left to do strategy consulting for public and private institutions, including the department of minerals and energy and Transnet, joining the Department of Public Enterprises as director general in October 2004.
Lindiwe Msengana-Ndlela
Director General
Department of Provincial and Local Government
Tel: +27 12 334 0600
www.dplg.gov.za
Lindiwe Msengana-Ndlela completed a BCom at Rhodes University in 1987 and an H.Dip.Ed in 1988. She taught commerce in the Eastern Cape before returning to Rhodes University in 1992 as a research specialist. Three years later, she was appointed director of the Eastern Cape education department. She spent the next six years working in the provincial government before moving to the national department of trade and industry as deputy director general in 2001. She was appointed director general in the department of provincial and local government in August 2002. In 2005 she received the Old Rhodian Award for outstanding accomplishment in professional life and enhancing the reputation of Rhodes University, as well as the International Quality and Productivity Centre award for best service delivery.
Lyndall Shope-Mafole
Director General
Department of Communications
Tel: +27 12 427 8167
www.doc.gov.za
Lyndall Shope-Mafole is the director general of the department of communications, a position she has held since 2004. Born in Johannesburg, she obtained an MSc in telecommunications engineering from the Jose Antonio Echeverria Higher Institute of Technology in Havana, Cuba, in 1983. She has held various positions at national and international levels, including membership of the first council of the Independent Broadcasting Authority, the former South African broadcasting regulator. She was the first chairperson of the National Telecommunications Forum and chairperson of the Council of the International Telecommunication Union. Shope-Mafole is a member of the United Nations Information and Communication Technology Task Force, which advises the UN secretary general on matters related to bridging the digital divide. She is also the chairperson of the Presidential National Commission on Information Society and Development, which was established by President Thabo Mbeki in February 2001.
Vijayanthimala “Mala” Singh
Deputy National Commissioner
Tel: +27 12 393 1000
www.saps.gov.za
Vijayanthimala “Mala” Singh made South African Police Service history when she was appointed as its first woman Deputy National Commissioner in 2002. But Singh was used to being a groundbreaker in the SAPS: in 1999 she was one of the first two women to be appointed as a divisional commissioner (career management). Born in KwaZulu-Natal, she started her career as an educator in 1977. By 1993 she had held various posts in the field, including being a lecturer at the Transvaal College of Education, assistant superintendent of education and a school principal. In 1995 she became a deputy director at the South African Management Development Institute. She joined the department of public service and administration a year later as director of public service reform, a post she held until 1997 when she was appointed chief director: public service reform. As deputy national commissioner Singh, who holds bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the universities of Natal and South Africa, is responsible for human resource management and development and legal services.
Martha Stander
Deputy National Commissioner
Tel: +27 12 393 1000
www.saps.gov.za
Deputy National Commissioner Martha Stander has worked her way up the ranks after starting her career in the police service in 1973. By 1980 she had successfully completed her National Diploma in Police Administration. In the same year she became an officer and was appointed as the commander of the theft branch in Pretoria Central. By 1983 had been appointed as a lecturer in crime investigation at the South African Police Training College. She also worked at the women police division in Pretoria, where she dealt with all female members’ personnel-related matters. In 1992, while working in personnel relations at police headquarters, she was appointed as second in command at manpower acquisition, and later that year she took command of the section. In 1995, Stander became deputy head: personnel services with the rank of director and was promoted to chief director of the division later that year. Stander was one of the first two women to be appointed divisional commissioner in 1999 — the other was Mala Singh. On March 1 2007 she became deputy national commissioner: personnel management and organisational development, the position she currently holds.
Pam Yako
Director General
Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
Tel: +27 12 310 3955
www.dwaf.gov.za
Pam Yako was director general of the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism before being moved to her current post. With a BCom from Rhodes University, she started out as a gender fieldworker for the Border Rural Committee, a land and rural development NGO based in East London. In July 1997 she became CEO of the Amatola District Council, a position she held until the change in local government dispensation. She served as municipal manager of the Amatola District municipality in 2001, and joined the department of environmental affairs and tourism in January 2002 as executive manager: biodiversity and conservation. She soon became deputy director general for biodiversity and conservation, then chief operating officer. She was instrumental in the successful hosting by South Africa of both the World Parks Congress in 2003 and the World Summit on Sustainable Development in 2002, having been seconded as deputy CEO to the Johannesburg World Summit Company.
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