Prof. Kedibone Phago

Professor Kedibone Phago holds a doctoral degree from the University of South Africa (Unisa) and serves as a full Professor and Head of Department for a Postgraduate Programme of Master of Public Administration at the Faculty of Management and Law of the University of Limpopo.  He has an exceptional research record and has published more than twenty five scientific articles in refereed journals and presented research papers on local and international conferences where the papers appear in the conference proceedings. He has also contributed several chapters to peer reviewed books. His research areas on which he has published articles and/or presented a paper include Public Administration, Good Governance, local government, municipal service delivery, local economic development, Integrated Development Planning, public policy including Housing Policy. Prof Phago currently serves as a Deputy Editor for a Journal of Public Administration, a premier journal in his discipline in South Africa where he is also responsible for editing special editions of the journal. Kedibone has received several research awards at the Department, School, College and university levels when he was still at Unisa. He is heavily involved in the supervision of masters and doctoral students and serves as an external examiner for several prestigious universities in South Africa.

His professional career as a scholar started when he was a postgraduate assistant at the former Vista University in 2002 where he completed his Masters’ Degree in Public Administration in 2003. He later joined Tshwane University of Technology for a short stint for a non-tenured lecturer position during 2004 and then moved to Unisa during 2005 until January 2012 as an Associate Professor at the Department of Public Administration and Management. He joined the University of Limpopo in February 2012 as an Associate Professor and Head of Department. After satisfying all the necessary requirements, Prof Phago was then promoted to a Full Professorship during July 2013.

Prof Phago has an extensive experience in the teaching and development of training material for Short Learning Programmes for government and non-government institutions. He was also involved from 2006-2008 to a Capacity Building Programme for the South Sudan where senior members of the civil service were trained in South Africa. His participation in similar SLPs projects in South Africa is extensive in the training of officials across the three spheres (local, provincial and national) in diverse areas within the discipline of Public Administration. Currently, he is managing a major training programme for public servants for a collaboration between the University of Limpopo and the School of Government. The training is undertaken for the Emerging and Advanced Management Development Programmes (EMDP & AMDP) in the Limpopo together with Gauteng, Mpumalanga and North West Provinces of South Africa. He is also consulting in research methodology and strategic planning for postgraduate students and government departments.

Research articles published in refereed (SAPSE-Accredited) journals

1. Phago K.G. 2005. Strengthening Local Economic Development (LED). The paper was presented at the Annual Conference of South African Association of Public administration and Management (SAAPAM), held on the 20-21 October 2005, UNISA, South Africa. The paper was further published in the Journal of Public Administration Conference Proceedings booklet of October 2005 on pp. 131-138.
2. Phago K.G. 2006. Public Housing Management and provision in South Africa: the systems approach in perspective. The paper was presented at the joint Conference of South African Association of Public Administration and Management (SAAPAM) & ASSADPAM, held on the September 2006, Durban, South Africa. The paper was  further published in the Journal of Public Administration Conference Proceedings booklet of October 2006 on pp. 267-278.
3. Phago K.G. and Malan L.P. 2004. Public Private Partnerships (PPPs) and their role in extending access to local governance. Journal of Public Administration (JOPA), special edition. Vol. 39 No. 4.1 November special issue: Critical issues: Ten years into democracy. Pp. 481-491.
4. Breitenbach M.C. & Phago K.G. 2006. Paying lip-service to Local Economic Development? – A City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality case study. Journal of Public Administration (JOPA), special edition. Vol. 41 No. 1 March. Pp. 4-20.
5. Mello D.M. & Phago K.G. 2007. Affirming women to managerial positions in the   South African Public Service. Article was published in the issue of Politeia, Vol. 26 Issue 2, 2007, UNISA.
6. Phago K.G. 2008. Community participation in the 21^st Century South Africa: modes, attitudes and trends. Journal of Public Administration Vol. 43 No. 2.1, Special Issue.
7. Campbell M. & Phago K.G. 2008. The Impact of Major Sporting Events on the Economy and the People of a Developing Region: The case of the 2010 FIFA World Cup Tournament. AfricaInsight Vol. 38(3).
8. Netswera F.G. & Phago K.G. 2009. Relationship between affordability of basic municipal services and satisfaction: the Soweto community case study. Journal of Public Administration Vol. 44 (1.1), pp. 133-144.
9. Phago K.G. & Netswera F.G. 2009. From framework to implementation: rural ward committee system in ‘Gauta’ Local Municipality. Journal of Public Administration, Vol. 44, No. 3.1, October, pp. 702-713.
10. Phago K.G. 2009. Improving local economic efficiency. Journal of Public Administration, Vol. 44 (3.2), pp. 207-215, October.
11. Phago K.G. 2009. Integrated Development Plan (IDP) in South African local government: the case of the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality. Journal of Public Administration Vol. 44 (3), pp. 483-491.
12. Phago K.G. 2010. An Analysis of recovery interventions by the African Development Bank. Africa Insight Vol. 40(2), pp. 13-27.
13. Phago K.G. & Tsoabisi S.J. 2010. Small, Medium and Micro Enterprises in the South African Local Government. Africa Insight Vol. 40(2), pp. 153-164.
14. Phago K.G. 2010. The development of housing policy in South Africa. Politeia Vol. 29(3), pp. 88-106.
15. Phago K.G. and F.G. Netswera. 2011. The role of traditional leadership in a developmental state: the case of Greater SekhukhuneDistrict Municipality of South Africa. Journal of Public Administration Vol. 46(3), pp. 1023-1038.
16. Netswera F.G. and Phago K.G. 2011. Perceptions about municipal governance in the post-1996 era: the case of Thulamela Local Municipality. Africa Insight Vol. 41(2), pp. 130-141.
17. Phago K.G. 2012. Local government and service delivery: twinning election campaigns and service delivery. Politeia Vol. 31(1), pp. 60-74.
18. Phago K.G. 2012. Public Administration in South Africa: an inevitable postulation of prospects. Journal of Public Administration. Vol. 47(1), pp. 133-147.
19. Baloyi M.C. and Phago K.G. 2012. Structural Functional Analysis of the Tshwane University of Technology: post merger implications. South African Journal of Higher Education. Vol. 26(5), pp. 873-890.
20. Netswera F. & Phago K.G. 2013. How popular protests influence public discourse and public accountability – revisiting the theory of public spheres in South Africa. Politeia Vol. 32 (1), pp. 26-41.

Articles in refereed (SAPSE-non-accredited) journals

• Phago K.G. and Hanyane B.R. 2007. Acknowledging public participation in public private partnership arrangements. (Peer Reviewed/refereed). Journal for Local Government Vol. 1(2),           
• Phago K.G. 2007. Controversies and challenges: municipal involvement in public housing in South Africa. Journal for Local Government Vol. 1(3), ISSN 1996-1307, December.
• Phago K.G. 2010. A big challenge: the housing shortage. FINWEEK magazine. 21 October, pp. 11.
• Phago K.G. 2011. A comparative analysis of the public housing policy. Service Delivery Review 8(3).
• Phago K.G. 2011. Review of the book ‘Contemporary social issues in Africa: Cases in Gaborone, Kampala and Durban, 2010’. Published by the Africa Institute of South Africa. Edited by MS Mapadimeng and S Khan. AISA Focus, Vol. 4.

Book reviews

• The Zuma Administration: critical challenges. 2010. Edited by KwandiweKondlo and Mashupye H Maserumule. Published by the HSRC Press. In Africa Insight Vol. 40(2), pp. 201-203.
• Contemporary social issues in Africa: Cases in Gaborone, Kampala and Durban. 2010. Published by the Africa Institute of South Africa. Edited by MS Mapadimeng and S Khan. Published by the Africa Institute of South Africa. In Africa Insight Vol. 40(4), pp. 198-199.

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Prof. Kedibone Phago CV