New Armscor chair Dr Lesiba Mahapa is a seasoned bureaucrat with his CV listing, among others, vice chairmanship of bargaining councils, a chief negotiator post and special advisor to four former Cabinet ministers.
His qualifications are in education topped by a PhD in psychology of education and a teacher’s diploma to start his career. Mahapa lists experience and knowledge in the defence, education, labour and human settlement sectors as well as various boards; labour relations strategies; economics; business economics; education and diversity; research methodology; socio-economic supplementary services; collective bargaining; human resources and organisational development, a defenceWeb inquiry was informed by Liziwe Nkonyana, Armscor Senior Manager: Corporate Communication.
With the exception of Peta Mashinini – now in her second term as an Armscor director – the seven other Armscor directors are “new kids on the block”. They are Maki Ndlovu (deputy chair), Zane Cleophas, Masande Booi, Raymond Vokwana, Dr Elsie Molokwane, Mmathabo Sukati and Ntshengedzeni Tshivhase. All will serve a three-year term.
Mahapa replaces Phillip Dexter as chairman who in his farewell chairman’s report in the 2023/24 annual report notes, among others, “Armscor’s current business model is largely reliant on a few service providers and Denel in particular, which has financial and operational constraints, continues to adversely impact on the role of Armscor and the constitutional mandate of the DoD (Department of Defence)”.
Armscor continues, through the steering committee established for that purpose, to seek break-through interventions for unlocking, accelerating and finalising of defence orders. The Armscor board, Dexter wrote, has pushed for realisation of economies of scale through Armscor on behalf of the DoD and customers, “through the realisation of increase in production of defence materiel at lower costs”.
Ahead of officially taking up director duties, the new board met Defence and Military Veterans Minister Angie Motshekga. She is reported by Defence Corporate Communication/SA Soldier as expressing confidence the new Armscor team will drive innovation and excellence at the State-owned entity tasked with defence and security acquisition and project management.
