Former president Thabo Mbeki’s legal adviser, advocate Mojanku Gumbi, has been appointed by UN secretary-general Antonio Gueterres as his special adviser on racism in the workplace.
The secretary-general’s office announced Gumbi’s appointment on Thursday.
Gueterres said an anti-racism team has been set up to help Gumbi in her work.
She recently served on a panel appointed by President Cyril Ramaphosa to investigate the July 2021 riots in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
The panel, which was chaired by Professor Sandy Africa, made damning findings against the police and intelligence agencies.
Businesses lost billions of rand as a result of the looting, destruction and vandalism that took place.
Gumbi worked with Mbeki for many years and has been serving as chancellor of the University of Venda.
In announcing her appointment, Guterres said Gumbi would play a key role in dealing with the issue of racism in the workplace.
“The special adviser will provide strategic advice to the secretary-general on addressing racism and racial discrimination, as well as oversee the implementation of the long-term Strategic Action Plan adopted by the organisation in 2022 to address racism in the workplace. Following the adoption of the strategic action plan, every secretariat entity was asked to develop and implement its own action plan, while an implementation steering group under the leadership and stewardship of the special adviser will monitor and guide corporate level actions to implement the strategic action plan. An anti-racism team has been established to support the special adviser,” said Gueterres.
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