Sam Vilakazi

Dr Sam Vilakazi was appointed to his current position in August 2012 He holds a Bachelor of Public Administration degree from the University of North West (South Aafrica), a post-graduate diploma in Business Management from the University of Natal, a post-graduate diploma in Management from the Management College of Southern Africa and a PhD in Management of Technology and innovation from the Da Vinci Institute of Technology.

Prior to joining government, Dr Sam Vilakazi held various management roles in the Mineworkers Development Agency, starting out in 1999 as a manager based in the Northern Cape before being promoted to the national office in Johannesburg in 2001. In this role he provided strategic and operational leadership throughout the country and in Lesotho. In 2004, Dr Sam Vilakazi joined the Small Enterprise Development Agency as a manager responsible for the agency’s access to markets and finance, entrepreneurship, information and communication technology programmes. In 2008 he joined the Department of Communications as a chief director for enterprise development, where he was responsible for facilitating the development of small, medium and micro enterprises in the information and communication technology sector.