Introduction
I am a fulltime lecture at the Wits School of Governance. Previous to this one has worked at the North West University School of Government, taught and run the University of KwaZulu-Natal (Howard College) Public Policy Honours Programme. I am a Public Policy specialist by training and research in the fields of (1) Local Economic Development (LED) and its use of Small to Medium Enterprises (SMMEs) (2) Economic Development Policy and the role of institutions within this process (3) Scenario Planning thinking and planning for Public Policy purposes and Failure Analysis within government thinking and Public Policies and institutions.
Before joining academia on a fulltime bases he worked as a Policy research consultant at the Gauteng Provincial Legislature and researcher for Integrated Development Planning Unit at the Sedibeng District Municipality (South African local government). During this time he worked on various socioeconomic and political analysis projects with the principle aim of understanding how and why local government in South Africa is unable to deliver economic development dividends like employment, effective spatial planning and efficient institutional processes and policies.
I have also worked on various consulting and research projects looking into how government institutions across four Southern African States have been unable to address the problem of Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) in the mining sector/industry and how this impacts the socioeconomic environment of those States, this was done under the Thabo Mbeki African Leadership Institution. In addition to this he has worked on Scenario Planning projects looking at the state of South Africa’s mining, energy and business sector at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (University of Pretoria).
Expert
I have worked in government and private consulting roles, in the following fields:
1. Local Economic Development with a particular focus on exploring the value and use of Small to Medium Enterprises in the economic development process.
2. Economic Development Planning and Institutional Design processes.
3. Scenario Planning thinking and planning for Public Policy development.
4. Failure Analysis within government thinking and Public Policies and institutions.
Fields of expertise: Economic policy / inclusive economic development, Education, Policy design and delivery, Sustainable Development Goals