Hard work is Rob Tooley’s recipe for success

POLOKWANE – “If you are willing to work hard and you keep working hard, you will reach your objective,” Rob Tooley, treasury MEC, said in an exclusive interview with Review on Tuesday.

Before getting involved in politics, Tooley was a farmer in Tzaneen.

“I was born and raised in Tzaneen and matriculated at Pretoria Boys High School in 1978. After matric I studied agriculture at the University of Stellenbosch and graduated in 1983. I went to Europe where I worked on different farms as a labourer to get experience. I worked the land, drove and repaired tractors. I returned to South Africa in mid-1984 and started farming with subtropical fruit for 10 years,” Tooley said.

Although Tooley joined the ANC in 1983, he only became actively involved in 1994 when he was elected as an ANC member of the Limpopo legislature.

In 1995 Tooley was deployed as chairperson of the standing committee of public accounts (Scopa) and served on the Scopa team until 2004.

After nine years at Scopa, Tooley was redeployed by the ANC as chairperson of the portfolio committee for finance in 2004 until February 2007 when he was appointed as the head of department (HOD) of treasury.

He said during this time, Limpopo was identified as one of the best financially managed provinces, however this changed over the years to a point where the province was placed under administration by the national department of treasury.

“Yes we slipped a bit, due to inefficient management of funds and not playing by the rules of treasury. Our mandate at treasury is very clear: manage budget, fund the government appropriately, manage expenditure and achieve the objectives of each financial year. If you do not abide by these rules, you will over spend, and that’s what caused the province to be placed under administration. But we are definitely on our way back to where we were. By 2019 Limpopo will be effective, efficient and economic,” Tooley said.

In April 2010, Tooley was moved from the treasury department to the Limpopo Tourism Agency as chief executive officer. In 2012 his contract was ended and he was unemployed until he was appointed for a second time as Scopa chairperson in 2014. After less than a year in this position he was elected by premier Stanley Mathabatha as treasury MEC.

According to Tooley there is room for improvement in some Limpopo government departments and there are some challenges, especially in the department of education.

“The department of education needs a lot of intervention as it has some administration, control and planning challenges. But treasury, together with education MEC, Ishmael Kgetjepe, the Auditor-General and consultants are dealing with it. It is important to get this department in order, as it gets the biggest portion of our budget,” Tooley explained.

Asked to describe himself in three sentences, the father of three said: “I am a family man, a leader, passionate, humble, disciplined and a positive South African. In the next five years, if I am no longer in office, I will retire and go back into farming.”

According to Tooley the qualities of a good leader is someone who is humble and able to listen to his or her employees. “If you do not listen to your people, you will not be able to hear them. If you do not hear what they are saying, you will not understand their problems and if you do not understand, you will not be able to solve whatever problem there is,” Tooley said.

Tooley said in five years Limpopo would be able to create decent jobs and would increase employment. “We will reach this objective through commitment by officials in government, effective management of budgets, plans carried out and achieved,” Tooley said.

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