Strategic leadership for Africa's public sector

GSDPP aims to build an esprit de corps amongst leaders in South Africa and Africa more broadly, and to promote peer networks and linkages between leaders in government and in other fields such as academia, business, civil society and the arts.

The School’s programmes attract respected thinkers and practitioners. In September 2015, the School appointed Dr Lindiwe Msengana-Ndlela as Adjunct Professor. Dr Msengana-Ndlela is currently a Special Advisor to the Minister of Science and Technology and has spent more than two decades as a highly respected public official in South Africa. In 2015 GSDPP also appointed two eminent African thinkers as Senior Fellows: Professor Thandika Mkandawire, Chair of African Development at the London School of Economics and Visiting Professor at UCT and Trevor Manuel, former South African Minister of Finance, and Honorary Professor at UCT. In 2016, the University appointed Dr Alison Gillwald, a global authority on ICT policy, as an adjunct professor at the School, as well as Dr Carlos Lopes, former executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, as a Visiting Professor.