Director-General of the Western Cape Government

Dr Harry Malila is the Director-General (Administrative Head) of the Western Cape Government (WCG). He reports directly to the Premier of the Western Cape, Mr Alan Winde. He is responsible to lead, coordinate, manage and implement the actions of the whole of government in the Province, including delivery on the key priorities, vision and values of the WCG. He directly interfaces with Cabinet and strategically supports the Premier in engagements with the Mayors, the President and the diplomatic corps. He manages intergovernmental relations with national, local and international government agencies.

Dr Malila is the Head of Department and Accounting Officer for the Department of the Premier, and is directly responsible to Parliament for a budget of R1.7 billion and for the management of over 1 000 staff. The Department provides Policy & Strategy, Strategic Management Information, Corporate Assurance, Information Technology and Legal Services to the WCG, as well as People Management services on an agency basis.

He holds a PhD, an MBA and an Honours degree, all from Stellenbosch University. In his PhD dissertation, he wrote, “Instead of driving governance from a tick-box perspective, we should drive it towards governance for the citizen – I want to push toward governance for results rather than governance for reporting. It's ultimately about putting processes in place that impact our citizens.”

Dr Malila was officially appointed as Director-General of the Western Cape Government in October 2019, after acting in the position for five months.