Phindile Baleni
Director General, Department of the Presidency and Secretary of the Cabinet, South Africa
The Director-General in the Presidency and Secretary of the Cabinet, Ms Phindile Baleni, (formerly Nzimande), was born in Soweto and spent her childhood and early adulthood in Katlehong, in the East of Gauteng.
Director-General Baleni has a distinguished professional career both in the public service and in the private sector. Ms Baleni is an admitted Attorney and Conveyancer holding a Baccalaureus Procurationis and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degrees, both from the University of Witwatersrand, where she enrolled after matriculating from a high school in Vosloorus. She commenced her legal career as a Candidate Attorney at Wright Rose Innes Attorneys in Germiston, where she subsequently became a Professional Assistant. She left the firm to become a partner at Moseneke and Partners in 1993.
In 1994 she became the special legal advisor to the then Gauteng Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Local Government and Housing, specialising in constitutional and administrative law issues. During this period, she was appointed as a member of the Board of the Directors of National Reconstruction and Housing Agency (NURCHA), a lead project of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP), by former President Nelson Mandela.
She joined the Municipality of the City of Johannesburg in 1996, where she gained extensive experience in strategic planning and the management of complex and diverse projects. She spearheaded various transformation initiatives including the formation of new municipal-owned entities. As the Executive Director of the Contract Management Unit, she managed the development of the legal and governance frameworks for entities such as Joburg Water, City Parks, City Power and Johannesburg Roads Agency, and at the same time managing the shareholder interests of the city.
In July 2003, Ms Baleni joined Electricity Distribution Industry Holdings as CEO, an organisation formed by the then Department of Minerals and Energy to oversee the establishment of six financially viable Regional Electricity Distributors (REDs) in South Africa. This national project involved assets worth R270 billion then, and a staff compliment of +/- 30 000.
She was subsequently appointed as the CEO of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) in April 2011. In this capacity she became the Chairperson of the Regional Electricity Regulators Association (RERA) – a Southern African Development Community (SADC) body – and a member of the executive committee of the African Forum for Utility Regulators (AFUR) – an African Union body. These bodies were established with the aim of harmonising and integrating regulatory frameworks for African utilities as part of the African Union’s objective of creating an environment conducive to investment in infrastructure and energy specifically across the continent.
In March 2015, Ms Baleni assumed duty as the Director-General in the Office of the Premier, Gauteng Province, a post to which she brought a wealth of experience in strategic leadership and management. Highlights of her work included: leading the team that developed Growing Gauteng Together: 2030 Plan of Action; promoting innovation in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and establishing a new Disaster Management structure as she spearheaded the Gauteng City Region Reponse to COVID-19.
Ms Baleni focused on government performance and good governance during her tenure. She led the development of a “medico-legal litigation battle plan” to reduce the financial losses arising from medical negligence claims against Government, amongst others. For this and other achievemets she was conferred the 2019/2020 DPSA Batho Pele Award for the best Provincial DG, silver and the Office of the Premier Gauteng won the best Premier’s Office award, bronze.
Ms Baleni who previously chaired the board of the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services SETA (MERSETA), and has served on the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) board, as well as on the Council of the University of Witwatersrand.
In April 2021, Ms Baleni was appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to the post of the Director-General in the Presidency and Secretary of the Cabinet. Ms Baleni has thus made history as the first woman to be appointed as head of the highest political office in the land, and thereby, the most senior public servant. In this capacity she is responsible for ensuring the strategic coherence of the plans of the various departments and spheres of government as well as keeping government on task to deliver on its electoral mandate. The latter (is encapsulated in the National Development Plan (NDP) and the Medium-Term Strategic Framework (MTSF), which is a five year plan that incoporates each Administration’s priorities). To this end, Baleni has her work cut out and is fully ensconced in her duties which include: steering The Presidency, overseeing Cabinet processes, and heading the Forum of South African Directors-General (FOSAD), which is the planning and coordination machanism of Directors General of all government departments, provincial Offices of all the Premiers and local government through the South African Local Government Association (SALGA). She is also the first Head of Public Administration (HOPA), a position contemplated in the NDP as a necessary element towards building a professional and capable public service in the country.
