Premier of the North West Province, Prof Tebogo Job Mokgoro has challenged the North West University (NWU) Business School students and lecturers to emphasise, in their learning and teaching, the nature of challenges the public service is facing, saying the current environment which is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous, requires management and leadership approach that appreciates that the public service environment is no longer predictable.

Premier Mokgoro said this today at the official opening of the Summer School and the activities of the NWU Business School, where he was delivering a Lecture on the challenges of management in the public service.

Attended by about 200 first and second year Master of Business Administration (MBA) students at the University’s Potchefstroom Campus, the session provided a platform for students to engage the Premier on amongst others, a diagnosis of what paralyses the state, the need to attract quality, progressive management and leadership enrichment.

“The public service requires men and women who can tolerate, survive and produce results in an environment that is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous.

“We need to encourage the spirit of collective learning and collective leadership, so that we can ultimately move towards revolution”, said Premier Mokgoro who also challenged the MBA students to become agents of transformation.

In his address, Premier Mokgoro reflected not only on his more than 30 years experience as an executive manager in the public service, but the apparent degenerating connection between the provincial government and the recipients of its services. Amongst others, Premier Mokgoro cited best practices and lessons he learned from different countries across the world in so far as management and leadership in the public service is concerned, and highlighted his observation and analysis of the root cause of service delivery challenges in certain areas of the province.

Prof Dan Kgwadi, the Vice Chancellor of the North West University, committed the University to ensuring that its Business School academia work together with the North West Provincial Government, reiterating that the collective’s involvement is needed in dealing with the challenge of ethics in the work environment.

Premier Mokgoro has since the beginning of the 2019 academic year, been visiting institutions of higher learning in the province, including the NWU’s Mahikeng Campus and TVET Colleges in Ngaka Modiri Molema District, where he interacted with management and students in a bid to strengthen relations between the provincial government and higher education institutions.