William Gumede

Associate Professor, Public and Development Management, Wits

Prof William Gumede is Associate Professor, Public & Development Management, and former Convenor, Political Economy, School of Governance at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg; and Professor, Management, Elsenburg, Stellenbosch.

He taught the program for MPs of the British Commonwealth on how to manage the finances of their country Parliaments and how to conduct themselves ethically as MPs. He was convener of the course on public policy for all Members of Parliament in South Africa. He teaches an economic development course for members of the South African National Executive (Cabinet). He was convener of the Local Governance Leadership and Oversight Course for Mayors, MMECs and senior executives, of South Africa’s major metro cities.

He is the Founder and Executive Chairperson of Democracy Works Foundation – now based in eight countries; the Founder, of the Institute for Social Dialogue, which tackles resource conflicts between mining companies and communities.

He was Independent Chairperson of the Negotiations to Establish the Multiparty Coalition of Opposition Parties for the 29 May 2024 South African National and Provincial Elections, the Multiparty Charter (MPC) or popularly known as the “Moonshot Pact”. He advised the parties in their negotiations to establish the new Government of National Unity, and the provincial unity governments following the outcome of the 19 May 2024 general election.

He was Co-Chair of the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) – the body for municipalities, deliberations on developing a legal framework for coalitions for all spheres of government in South Africa – the proposals informed Cabinet’s current draft coalition law for South Africa.

He was the Chairperson and facilitator of the negotiations between then the governing ANC, opposition parties, independent candidates, civil society over South Africa’s Electoral Amendment Bill, which makes provision for independent candidates to contest national and provincial elections for the first time in South Africa’s post-1994 history. He was the facilitator, chairing the session on tackling the ANC’s difficult relationship with Business and Civil Society, at the 2017 ANC National Consultative Conference of ANC Veterans and Stalwarts.

He is Co-Founder and Co-Convener, of the Drakensberg Inclusive Economic Growth Forum, organized under the auspices of former South African President Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation, bringing together Cabinet members, government, business, and civil society leaders to discuss the key development priorities for the country.

He was a Member of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s High-Level Task Team advising on the restructuring and professionalization of the South African public service. He was member of South Africa’s National Government’s Institutional Review Team that conducted an institutional review of the capacity of the Water Research Commission, South Africa’s water resources and future water needs.

He was a Principal Advisor for several government inquiries or reports on public sector reforms, including the Presidential Review Committee on State-Owned Entities (SOEs), the National Treasury reports on organizational reforms for Development Finance Institutions (DFIs).

He was Principal Author & Team Leader of the government inquiry that conducted a review of state-owned property and land and made proposals for how to manage government’s state-owned land and properties and proposed and modeled a separate entity to hold government’s land and property holdings.

He advised South Africa’s government in the establishment of several state agencies, including the Parliamentary Budget Office, the Infrastructure Project Preparation Fund, and the Green Fund. He was Co-Founder and Co-Principal Author of the 2012 South African Development Report.

He was Principal Author of Chapter 6: Well-Governed Cities, of The State of South African Cities Report 2016.

He co-chaired the South African government’s 2009 Developmental State Conference.

Previously, he was Program Director, Africa Asia Centre, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London; Senior Associate Member & Oppenheimer Fellow, St. Antony’s College, Oxford University; Senior Research Fellow & Graduate Student Mentor, London School of Economics and Political Sciences (LSE); Press Fellow, Wolfson College, Cambridge University; Guest Professor, University of Aarhus, Denmark; Course Leader, School of Public Policy, Central European University, Budapest; Course-Leader, New School University, New York; and Visiting Fellow, Duke University, North Carolina.

He is the author of a couple of number 1 bestsellers. His most recent book is South Africa in BRICS (Tafelberg).