Dr Mzukisi Qobo is an Associate Professor and Deputy Director at the NRF Research Chair on African Diplomacy and Foreign Policy, University of Johannesburg.

He serves on the Boards of Corruption Watch and Johannesburg Development Agency. At the Johannesburg Development Agency, he has chaired the Human Resources and Remuneration Committee (REMCO) and also sat on the Audit and Risk Committee.

Mzukisi has completed Board Leadership Development Programme with the Institute of Directors of Southern Africa, where he completed the following programmes: Becoming a Director Parts 1 to 5: governance; ethics, strategy, integrated reporting, governance of ethics, and financial insights, among others. He is a member of the Institute of Directors (M.Inst.D).

Mzukisi has fulfilled leadership roles that span government, policy think tanks, and academia. In his former role as Chief Director responsible for trade policy at the Department of Trade and Industry, he drafted South Africa’s current trade policy.

In his strategic advisory roles, he has helped organisations develop strategies to respond to political risks, public policy issues, and frame effective stakeholder engagement approaches across financial services sector, telecommunications, and mining.

Dr Mzukisi Qobo was project leader on a programme aimed at helping the South African government undertake risk assessment related to money laundering and corrupt practices, as well as to fulfill its commitments to the G20 High Level Principles on Transparency in Beneficial Ownership.

The work entailed identifying critical risk factors, strengthening anti-money laundering legislation, and curbing the use of corporate vehicles and trusts as conduits for illicit financial flows.

Mzukisi also co-teaches an MBA elective on emerging markets at the Wits Business School, where he covers the structure of the international political economy, economic globalisation and the 4th industrial age, political risk and institutional voids in emerging markets, and culture and institutions in cross-border business.

Dr Mzukisi Qobo is also a founding director at Afgrain Food Group, a company dedicated to supporting emerging and cooperative farmers in rural communities, with a view to helping the to integrate into the food value chain. He is a regular columnist with the Daily Maverick.

He has in the past been a columnist for the Business Day and Sowetan newspapers. Mzukisi obtained his PhD from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom; MA from the University of Stellenbosch; and BA from the University of Cape Town.