Ms Lerato Dorothy Mataboge has over twenty-three years in the global policy and trade and investment facilitation arena. She is a seasoned international political economy executive and diplomat and is currently the Deputy Director-General in the South African Department of Trade, Industry and Competition (the dtic). Prior to this role, Ms Mataboge founded and was CEO of Trade Invest Africa an initiative aimed at creating sustainable partnerships between governments and the private sector towards the attainment of greater levels of intra-African trade and intra-African investments, specifically in infrastructure and energy projects. Through Trade Invest Africa, over US$300 million was mobilised for strategic rural electrification projects in Southern Africa by FY1. Ms Mataboge also played and continues to play a pivotal role in the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA), having been one of the lead contributors to the inception of the AfCFTA. Ms Mataboge previously held the position of Chief Director for Africa at the dtic. In this role, Ms Mataboge coordinated and led the Economic Cluster for South Africa’s Bi-National Commissions with partner countries in the rest of Africa; as well as optimised South African enterprises’ participation in the rest of Africa by negotiating for their improved market access and improved operational environments. In this role she participated in strategic infrastructure projects such as the Inga Hydro-Electric Project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Lesotho Highlands Project, among others.
Ms Mataboge has over a number of years led the commercial aspects of South Africa’s global multilateral engagements through the BRICS, IORA, G20/B20, AfCFTA inter alia; as well as bilateral engagements by leading and coordinating South Africa’s economic priorities, Business Forums and Exhibitions within these formations. She is an astute facilitator of partnerships between the private sector and the public sectors for the realisation of growth objectives. Central to her multilateral work is the negotiation and management of catalytic international programmes and the establishment and maintenance of strategic partnerships for Africa’s growth.
In June 2011, she completed her full term as a diplomat (Minister: Economic) in the USA, based in Washington D.C. where she, inter alia, contributed strategic ideas to the Africa Group of Ambassadors; managed relationships with the US Congress and Administration for Africa’s economic growth; as well as facilitated US investments into South Africa. Ms Mataboge was pivotal in advocating for and securing the extension, retention and expansion of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) in a difficult period of a global economic crisis and resultant on-shoring trends.
From 2012 to 2018, Ms Mataboge was the co-chairperson of the South African Presidential Working Group on the North- South Corridor during South Africa’s Chair-ship of the African Union’s Presidential Infrastructure Championing Initiative (PICI).
Ms Mataboge, in 2024, has resuscitated the PICI, a report of which will be presented to PICI Heads of States during the AU Summit of 2025. Ms Mataboge was also pivotal in the successful roll-out of the DBSA-supported Spatial Development Initiatives Programme, a project-preparation fund aimed at preparing bankable cross-border infrastructure projects on the African continent. In recent years, Ms Mataboge has provided thought leadership to the Africa Energy Indaba and Manufacturing Indaba platforms and is a key contributor to and creator of the Africa Energy Colloquium launched in 2023 which aims to facilitate partnerships between African energy regulators, utilities and financiers towards acceleration of energy provision in Africa driven by African solutions to African needs. Ms Mataboge has contributed to successive clean audit outcomes for her current organisation from 2018 to date, through her consistent application of good governance principles, including in good financial management of the multi-million US dollar trade investment incentive programme that she currently manages.
Ms Mataboge currently serves on the Board of the Export Credit Insurance Corporation of South Africa (ECIC) as a non-Executive Director, a position she was appointed to in May 2018. As a member of the Finance and Investment Committee, she has been instrumental in the strategic deployment of financing to key infrastructure and energy projects in the rest of Africa such as the Mozambique LNG project, SANPower and Amandi rail projects in Ghana, Zimborders in Zimbabwe and ITB Nigeria Limited, inter alia.
Ms. Mataboge is an Archbishop Desmond Tutu– Oxford University Fellow for African Leadership. She was featured in the Destiny Magazine’s “Power 40 under 40” feature in November 2015, in recognition of her leadership on African economic development issues. She was recently named one of the top-100 Influential Persons of African Descent in the International Trade field on Africa Day, 25 May 2024 by the United Nations-affiliated organization, the MIPAD Global Network.
Ms Mataboge holds a BA (Law and International Relations) degree as well as an Honours degree in International Relations from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. She obtained a Master’s degree in International Political Economy (International Trade and Global Finance) from the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, with a thesis entitled: “A Critical Analysis of Proposals to Reform the Global Financial Architecture”.
Ms Mataboge also holds certificates in trade negotiations, bilateral investment treaty negotiations as well as project management; awarded by the European Institute of Public Administration in the Netherlands, WTO/UNCTAD, and SADC Secretariat, respectively. She completed Executive Training in infrastructure project conceptualisation, preparation and execution – “Infrastructure in a Market Economy” – from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
On the eve of the African Extraordinary Summit on the AfCFTA in December 2020, Ms Mataboge delivered a TEDx Talk on “Why Intra-African Trade Matters”, a talk which is currently being used as a tool for introducing the subject of trade to policy-makers, executives and global students of the South African National School of Government.
Ms Mataboge was a member of the UNIDO Practitioners’ Group on Norms (2021-2023) where she contributed her knowledge and experience in assisting the United Nations (through UNIDO) to mainstream norms and standards for development and creating matrices for measuring the developmental impact of UN economic interventions globally. She has authored and co-authored numerous articles on Africa’s development and has contributed thought leadership in over 120 panels and conferences globally, advocating for Africa’s growth and development through trade and investment.
Ms Lerato Dorothy Mataboge stands as the youngest candidate for the African Union Commission and brings a wealth of experience, and agile and innovative leadership to the organisation towards an AU that is representative and transformed for the Africa We Want.
Ms Lerato Mataboge’s positive and valued contribution to Africa’s integration, growth and economic development is featured in the autobiography by South Africa’s longest-serving Trade and Industry Minister, Dr Rob Davies entitled: “TOWARDS A NEW DEAL – A Political Economy of the Times of My Life” (Jonathan Ball Publishers, 2021).