GCRO Board
Adam Habib is Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research, Innovation and Advancement at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa. He has held academic appointments over the last decade at the Universities of Durban-Westville and KwaZulu-Natal and the Human Science Research Council. Prior to being appointed Executive Director of the Democracy and Governance Programme of the Human Science Research Council in 2004, he served as the founding director of the Centre for Civil Society and a research professor in the School of Development Studies at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Habib has served as co-editor of both the social science academic journal Transformation and the official disciplinary journal of the South African Association of Political Science, Politkon. He also sits on the editorial boards of Voluntas, South African Labour Bulletin, and UNESCO’s 2009 World Social Science Report. Habib’s research interests include democratisation and development, contemporary social movements, giving and solidarity, institutional reform, race, redress and citizenship, and South Africa’s role in Africa and beyond. He has recently concluded studies on the state of academic freedom as part of the task group on academic freedom and institutional autonomy established by the Council for Higher Education, and an evaluation of affirmative action and redress and their impact on citizenship in South Africa.
Professor Helen Laburn has recently been appointed as Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research at the University of the Witwatersrand, with effect from 1 March 2011. From 2006 to December 2010 she was Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Wits, and prior to that, Head of School of Physiology, and Professor of Thermal Physiology in that School. She is also an Honorary Professorial Research Fellow in the Brain Function Research Group, School of Physiology. Laburn holds a BSc Honours degree and a PhD from Wits and has served Wits in various other capacities. She is Chairman of the Wits Health Consortium and until recently was a Director of the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of South Africa, and Honorary Fellow of the Physiology Society of Southern Africa, awards which recognized her contribution to research in thermal and fetal physiology. For several years she was the only South African who was a foreign member of the Physiological Society (UK). By invitation, Laburn has been a member of the Thermal Physiology Commission of the International Union of Physiological Sciences, Chairman of the SA National Committee for the IUPS, and member of the National Advisory Council on Innovation. She has published widely in international journals on the subject of fever, temperature regulation and the feto-maternal thermal relationship.
Prof. Rob Moore is Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of the Witwatersrand ('Wits') in Johannesburg. He spent twelve years at the University of Cape Town researching and teaching in higher education studies, before being appointed as Director of Institutional Audits for South Africa's Council on Higher Education. He then joined Wits in 2006 as Director of Strategic Planning. In 2007, he was appointed as Deputy Vice Chancellor (Advancement & Partnerships). His research interests have focused on issues of institutional adaptation. In particular, he has published on issues of institutional responsiveness to policy, on curriculum reform, and on the development of management capacity. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the journal Studies in Higher Education.
Fiona Tregenna is Associate Professor in the Department of Economics and Econometrics at the University of Johannesburg. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Cambridge, a Masters degree in Economics from the University of Massachusetts (Amherst), and earlier degrees from the Universities of the Witwatersrand and Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal).
In the past she has worked for among others the National Labour and Economic Development Institute, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, universities in South Africa and abroad, and as a consultant to various research institutes and international organisations. Her research has been published or is forthcoming in journals including Review of Political Economy, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Applied Economics, International Review of Applied Economics, South African Journal of Economics, Development Southern Africa, European Journal for the History of Economic Thought, Review of African Political Economy and Industrial and Corporate Change, as well as a number of book chapters. Fiona has presented her research at conferences and seminars in the United States, Brazil, Japan, Greece, Finland, Chile, Cuba, Turkey, Spain, India, China, Switzerland, Ghana, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and elsewhere.
Annette Griessel is the Deputy Director General of Policy and Governance in the Office of the Premier, Gauteng Provincial Government, responsible for strategic planning, monitoring and evaluation, policy development and research, cabinet systems and international and intergovernmental relations. She played a key role in the establishment of the Gauteng City-Region Observatory and other initiatives aimed at developing Gauteng as a more socially inclusive, equitable and prosperous city-region. She holds Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of Cape Town. She has held positions in media and communications, including within the trade union and political movements and served as head of communications for the Department of Labour and later for the Gauteng Provincial Government.
Rashid Seedat is the Head of the Gauteng Planning Commission (GPC), a position he assumed in October 2011. The GPC is located in the Office of the Premier. He is responsible for short, medium and long range planning as well as performance monitoring and evaluation for the Gauteng Provincial Government. Rashid was Director of the Central Strategy Unit in the City of Johannesburg for over 10 years where he was responsible for strategic planning (including formulation of the Growth and Development Strategy and the Integrated Development Plan), strategic policy development and performance management. He previously worked as a senior specialist in local government at Planact, a progressive nongovernmental organisation. He was also active in organisations affiliated to the United Democratic Front between 1980-1994, during the struggle against apartheid. Rashid has a BA, Master’s in Public & Development Management and MSc in Development Planning – all from Wits University, Johannesburg. He was awarded a fellowship at the Local Government Centre, Warwick University, UK between 1992 and 1993 and also studied at the University of London, UK in 1993.
Dan Mashitisho is the Municipal Manager of Mogale City Local Municipality and Chair of the Gauteng Municipal Accounting Officers' Forum. He represents Gauteng municipalities on the Board of the Gauteng City-Region Observatory. He played a critical role in the transformation of the former Transvaal Provincial Administration into the Gauteng Government Administration as a member of the Strategic Management Team. As Chief Director, Local Government, he played a leading role in the establishment of Gauteng Municipalities in the pre-interim, interim and final phases of Local Government and development of the Local Government White Paper and subsequent municipal legislation, such as the LG Structures and Systems Acts. Mr Mashitisho served as a Ministerial appointee in the Wits University Council and is currently the chairperson of the Community Beneficiary Committee of the Trust Board of the Cradle of Human Kind. He holds a BA Degree and Postgraduate Diploma in Management from Wits University as well as Postgraduate Diploma in Advanced Labour Law from University of Johannesburg and an MBA with the Management College of Southern Africa.
