Addis Ababa, Ethiopia – 7 April 2015: The Chairperson of the African Union Commission Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma has appointed Ms. Jennifer Susan Chiriga and Amb Febe Potgieter-Gqubule as the new Chief of Staff and Deputy Chief of Staff respectively in the Bureau of the Chairperson.
Ms. Jennifer Chiriga takes over Amb Jean Baptiste Natama who resigned in February 2015. Acting Chief of Staff since March 2015, Ms. Chiriga was been the Deputy Chief of Staff since June 2014. Details of her Bio is below.
The new Deputy Chief of Staff, Amb. Febe Potgieter-Gqubule, has since October 2012 been Advisor for Strategy and Planning to the AU Commission Chairperson. Prior to joining the AU in 2012, she was South African Ambassador and Head of Mission to Poland. See details of her Bio below.
The appointments are in line with the Dr. Dlamini Zuma’s commitment to assertively promote women within the management of the AU Commission. Professional staff in the Bureau of the Chairperson is currently drawn from at least fourteen countries, including Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Congo Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Mali, Mauritius, Nigeria, South Africa, Western Sahara, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Bios
Ms. Jennifer Susan Chiriga: A national of Zimbabwe, Ms. Chiriga, has a BSc in Politics and Administration and MA in Policy Studies through a joint programme of the University of Zimbabwe and University of Fort Hare. She has over 20 years of accumulated work experience across the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Zimbabwe as a Desk Officer, through the development arena, specifically in the NGO sector as a manager in programme administration and management, as well as in policy design and application. She is a former Executive Director of the African Forum on Debt and Development (AFRODAD), a pan-African NGO; she has executive management experience and has worked extensively on civil society capacity-building strategies.
Ms Chiriga has a broad spread of international experience. She was awarded a fellowship on the Africa–Asia Transitional Justice Fellowship Programme, an internationally recognised programme run jointly by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR) in South Africa and the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), based in New York. As part of that programme, she interned with the Centre for Conflict Resolution (CCR) a Cape Town based organisation that works on regional and continental issues. At CCR, she assisted in developing materials for conflict management training, and delivered a high-level conflict management training course for senior Zimbabwe Government officials.
Ambassador Febe Potgieter-Gqubule: is the Advisor for Strategy and Planning to the AU Commission Chairperson, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma. Prior to joining the African Union in 2012 Ambassador Potgieter-Gqubule served as the South African Ambassador and Head of Mission to Poland.
Amb Febe has a Master’s Degree from the University of Witwatersrand, with her research focusing on youth labor market policy and institutions in Gauteng. She has since written several articles pertaining to the Youth, Gender, Social Democracy and Institutionalization among others.
She served as a member of the Council of the Mango Sotho University of Technology (2012-2014) and previously served on the boards of various not-for profit or public entities, including as a member of the Board of Governors of MISTRA (2010-2013), as Deputy Chairperson of the Board of the State Information Technology Agency (2010-2013), Chairperson of the Board of the Lejweleputswa Development Agency (2009-2013), the advisory board of the University of Witwatersrand’s Education Policy Unit (EPU) (2011-2013), the Board of the Education and Training Unit (2002-2012).
Ambassador Febe has a long history and extensive work experience in youth development and employment. She has served on the National Youth Development Forum and has been a Secretary General of the ANC Youth League during the early 1990s.
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