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Empowerment has always been at the centre of everything Tefelo does. She started her career as a high school teacher, teaching accountancy and economics. When a group of youngsters found themselves without a scheduled class or a teacher to teach them, Tefelo took these foundlings under her wing when no other teachers were interested in the additional burden. Not only did the neglected and heavily demotivated class thrive, but with a bit of extra care and plenty of dedication, they became the highest performing learners of Tefelo’s teaching career.
When the desire for growth pushes you onto a different course
Realising that the glass ceiling of being a school teacher was an all too real stumbling block, Tefelo embarked on an adventure and went to get her global chartered accountant’s degree along with an MBA in China. Setting the bar high has always been something Tefelo has aspired to do. Her efforts were rewarded with a position at Conningarth Economists, a boutique multidisciplinary economic consulting firm.
After five years of economic modelling at Conningarth, Tefelo joined KPMG, where she enjoyed the more diverse economics portfolio and the culture of corporate South Africa. Tefelo thrived and found a passion for development economics.
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In late 2017, Tefelo joined the Gauteng Provincial Government as a quantitative economist for the Department of Infrastructure Development. After a little over a year, she made the jump to her current role as Head of Investment Promotion with the Gauteng Growth and Development Agency.
Hedging the Investment Development Unit – the meeting of investors and Provincial Infrastructure Development projects
The Gauteng Growth and Development Agency is a government agency that promotes Gauteng as a preferred investment destination and showcases investment opportunities for investors looking for solid significant infrastructure investment returns. Tefelo’s broad role on the trade and investment team is to attract investment into the province.
This is no small task. While Gauteng remains a priority investment destination, the team has its work cut out for them, as there is a lot of competition between the provinces, especially between the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
Gauteng is the financial hub of South Africa, accounting for just over a third of the overall economic performance of the country, making economic returns on these investments critical. In addition to attractive investment returns, government has its development mandates that they need to deliver on if they are to consider a project an investment success.
Economic transformation, job creation and sustainability key performance indicators are just examples of boxes that need to be ticked if the projects are to get the go-ahead and be successful.
When success really does mean a job well done
In addition to her overall role of attracting investment into the province, Tefelo is also a part of the Special Economic Zones (SEZ) task team. Being part of the SEZ workstreams means that Tefelo is tasked with fast-tracking the implementation of these critical projects. When asked about her greatest success in this arena, Tefelo speaks about her contribution towards implementing the Gauteng Special Economic Zone programme, where she is instrumental in driving processes in the West Rand SEZ.
Along every step of her career journey, she has spoken at length of the tremendous talents of others and how she benefited from different types of leadership, but she leaves out the valuable impacts of her own achievements, of which there are an impressive list.
A Woman on a mission
Tefelo is clearly an ambitious woman. However, she speaks of her rise to her current role with touching humility. She also highlights the lingering frustration that women, particularly younger women, still experience in the workplace. Tefelo has some powerful advice for young women in the corporate world. ‘Make a statement. Grab hold of every opportunity and take your seat at the table.’
When asked what the future holds, Tefelo is clear that she would like to remain in an advisory role that enables government to deliver its work in a meaningful manner, without being in the political space herself. If she were to step outside of her government role, she would choose to move into impact investing, where social and environmental impact is measured alongside economic returns.
While the future may be impossible to predict, it is safe to say that Tefelo has a bright future ahead of her. Self-possessed, articulate and motivated to always supersede expectation, Tefelo is a woman on a mission. She has been tasked with a tall order. Still, if her performance in Gauteng government is anything to go by, she is more than capable of driving meaningful development in the financial hub of a country deeply in need of compelling economic growth.
