Dr Kelebogile Choice Makhetha is the newly appointed Executive Director in the Office of the Vice-Chancellor and Principal, at the Central University of Technology (CUT), from 01 November 2024 - 31 October 2029. She is excited to return to CUT, where she previously (January 2018 - July 2019) served as the Transformation Advisor. 

Dr Makhetha has just completed five years and three months (August 2019 – 31 October 2024) as the Senior Director: Student Affairs at Stellenbosch University. She has over 21 years of work experience within the public Higher Education sector in South Africa, and 17 years of these were at senior and executive levels.  

Before then, Dr Makhetha was the Vice-Rector: Student Affairs and External Relations at the University for the Free State. In this role, she was responsible for Student Affairs, Internationalisation (including Diplomatic Relations), Community Engagement, Government Relations (at local, provincial, and national levels), and broader external relations. Two other campuses of the University (Qwaqwa and South Campuses) reported to and through her Office as well. 

She obtained her PhD in Political Science in 2003, at the University of the Free State, in the field of Elections and Electoral Systems – “Electoral Systems as a mechanism of democratic governance – A South African perspective”, funded by the Mellon Foundation.  

She has been a member of the Institutional Audits Committee (IAC) of the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) since February 2020, reporting to the Council on Higher Education (CHE) until February 2025.  

She believes in leading and serving from anywhere and at any level, always empowering others to do the same, and doing so with humility.