UCT joins the City of Cape Town in welcoming its new City Manager, UCT alumnus and 2002 recipient of an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws, Advocate Wallace Mgoqi. He will take up his new position at the beginning of March.
Born in Goodwood in 1949, Adv. Mgoqi graduated with an LLB degree from UCT in 1984. He also studied at Fort Hare, UNISA and Harvard.
In 1993, at the instigation of Dr Mamphela Ramphele, then Deputy Vice-Chancellor of UCT, he was nominated to be a government appointed member of the University Council. He served on the Council until 1995. In 2001, he was made the life governor of the board of governors at the University.
He presently serves as Chief Land Claims Commissioner and, as such, presides over the process of land restitution. He formerly practised as a public interest lawyer at the Legal Resource Centre, and played a leading role during the 1970s as a community worker in assisting and representing the beleaguered squatter communities of Modderdam, Unibel, Werkgenot and Crossroads.
Newspaper reports quote Mgoqi as saying that he is looking forward to coming home and intends putting the city of Cape Town back on its feet by making sure service delivery happens and investments flow into the area.