Busani Ngcaweni has been the Director of the Centre for Public Policy and African Studies at the University of Johannesburg since August 2025. One of the Centre’s flagship offerings is the PGDip in Public Policy and African Studies, which draws students mainly from Parliament.
From March 2020, he was Director-General and Principal of the National School of Government (NSG) in South Africa, which grew into a leading management development institute in Africa and a recognised think tank for public sector reforms and civil service professionalisation. The NSG serves appointed and elected officials across South Africa and the broader African region, working with local and international university partners. He has since been appointed Distinguished Fellow of the NSG.
Before this role, Ngcaweni was Head of Policy and Research in The Presidency and served as Chief of Staff to multiple South African deputy presidents and the current president. Amongst key national programmes he has coordinated are the National Minimum Wage policy setting, the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the National Anti-Poverty Strategy, the National AIDS Response and the Framework Towards the Professionalisation of the Public Sector, which is a key public sector reform strategy for the previous and the current administrations. His research interests span policy development and implementation, institutional design and strategy, public leadership and economic governance. He has held academic affiliations as Research Associate at the University of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences where he is reading for a PhD in World Economy, Visiting Professor at China Foreign Studies University (current), Visiting Professor at the Wits School of Governance (2019–2025), Visiting Professor at Fudan University (2024) and Visiting Scholar at Toronto Metropolitan University (2015). He is also a Fellow of the African Leadership Initiative/Aspen Global Leadership Network.
Ngcaweni writes for leading newspapers in South Africa and Asia. His most recent of 11 edited books include Liberation Diaries Volume II (Jacana Media, 2024), African Literature and Intellectual Histories (HSRC Press, 2024) and The Contested Idea of South Africa (Routledge, 2022). Jacana Media will publish his monograph, Frontiers of National and Regional Development: Rethinking Governance and Growth in the Global South in November 2025.
