The Mandela School appoints Advocate Vusi Pikoli and Dr Ian Goldman as new Adjunct Professors

The Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance is pleased to announce the appointment of Advocate Vusi Pikoli and Dr Ian Goldman as new Adjunct Professors; they are joined by Dr Maria Phalime, Dr Shanil Haricharan and David Schmidt in their appointments as adjunct senior lecturers. 

They enter into these roles with a wealth of expertise and influence; Advocate Pikoli, well known as the fiercely independent former National Director of Public Prosecutions currently serves as Chief Risk and Compliance Officer at the South African Airways. Advocate Pikoli played a key role in constitutional negotiations for a democratic South Africa and served in the Department of Justice for 15 years (1994-2009).

As National Director of Public Prosecutions he was first suspended and then fired for pursuing corruption charges against powerful individuals, including the former police commissioner and head of Interpol, Jackie Selebi. This is documented in his memoir with Mandy Wiener, My Second Initiation. More recently he has been a special advisor to the minister of state security, the Police Ombudsman for the Western Cape (2014-2018) and a commissioner on the Khayelitsha Commission of Enquiry into police inefficiency.

At the Mandela School, Advocate Pikoli teaches on the Ethics module of the School’s professional masters programme and is a lead facilitator on the School’s executive short courses on Ethical Leadership and Public Accountability that are targeted at senior public servant leaders. His practitioner experience and stature as someone of indisputable integrity who has been on the frontline of upholding constitutionalism and the rule of law, makes him an invaluable resource for the School.

Advocate Pikoli completed his BA (Law) & LLB at the National University of Lesotho in 1984; an LLM in Legislative drafting at the University of Zimbabwe in 1988; Business Leadership at the Wharton Business School, Pennsylvania in 1996. In 1994 he was appointed as special advisor to the Minister of Justice, where he played a key role in constitutional negotiations for a democratic South Africa. In 1995 he was admitted to practice as an Advocate of the High Court in South Africa.

Dr Ian Goldman who has also been appointed as Adjunct Professor; teaches a module on Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation for Change in the masters programme at the Mandela School. The module focuses on providing a broad framework and tools for managing change. Dr Goldman is the key convener of the Leadership II module since 2014 and is also one of the main supervisors for masters students.  

Dr Goldman completed a BSc Soil Science at Reading University in 1978; an MSc Tropical Agricultural Development at Reading University in 1980; in 1988 he completed a Diploma in Systems Analysis and Design, at the National Computer Centre, UK; in 2001 he completed a PhD, at the Graduate School of Public and Development Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Title: “Managing Rural Change in the Free State, South Africa – transforming the public sector to serve the rural poor”.

Dr Goldman was Head of Evaluation and Research from 2011 to 2018 and also served as Deputy Director General (DDG) from 2017 to 2018 at the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME). Dr Goldman has 40 years of experience, working in 19 countries, in international organisations, in three international languages (English, Spanish and French).

In addition the School is proud to announce the appointments of Dr Maria Phalime, Dr Shanil Haricharan, and Mr David Schmidt as adjunct senior lecturers:

Dr Maria Phalime is a former medical doctor, author, leadership development facilitator and coach; for the past four years she has facilitated and developed programmes for the Mandela School, including: The Leading in Public Life, Emerging African Leader Programme; Understanding Poverty and Inequality in South Africa for senior South African public sector officials; Atlantic Fellows Programme (in collaboration with the London School of Economics); Collaborative Leadership for Regional Economic Development. Her book, “Postmortem: The doctor who walked away,” won the City Press Nonfiction Award (2012) and was shortlisted for the Alan Paton Award (2015.

Dr Shanil Haricharan completed a PhD at the University of Stellenbosch, in 2015, titled: “The impact of emotional intelligence on public leadership performance in South Africa.” At the Mandela School Dr Haricharan is a convener of the leadership learning sequence in the masters programme. The leadership course is one of the main pillars of the Master’s in Development and Practice programme. Dr Haricharan is part of the School’s Masters programme since its inception in 2014 and has developed an entire new Leadership I module for the programme in 2018.

David Schmidt has degrees in public management, economics and law and is a public leadership expert with a specific expertise in facilitating multi-stakeholder dialogues in complex urban and local governance contexts. Over the past four years he has played a key role in developing the pedagogical approach and public leadership model that underpins the Mandela School’s Building Bridges programme. Since 2015 he has co-facilitated and taught on the School’s three flagship leadership courses, namely the Leading in Public Life Emerging African Leaders Programme, the LeAD Campus “My Leadership” week and the executive short course in Ethical Leadership and Public Accountability, as well as the Ethics Module of the professional masters programme.

The School is confident that these appointments will not only benefit the University of Cape Town’s community; but it will greatly benefit the continent. The School has trained 1400 students from across Africa in leadership and academic programs since it was established in 2011. It combines academic insight with practice-based public service to promote strategic public leadership in Africa.

The Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance would like to congratulate and welcome the new staff members.

For more information, please contact the Mandela School’s Communications Manager, Andile Cele, at andile.cele@uct.ac.za or (021) 650 7019. Alternatively, contact Mandela School’s Director, Alan Hirsch on (021) 650 1420.