“I am of the view that content, happy and healthy employees are productive and beneficial to an organisation,”says Advocate Motshegwa Molefe, the new Deputy Director for Employees Relations and Wellness at the University of Pretoria (UP).

Advocate Molefe (47) joined UP in July 2022, bringing with her a wealth of experience and expertise spanning a 24-year career. She served articles as a Candidate Attorney at North-West University's legal aid centre, worked as a labour consultant for a union for three years, and worked as a legal advisor on labour law services for the City of Tshwane for five years. She was a Commissioner for the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration from 2008 to 2018 before moving to Transnet, where she worked as a senior manager for employee relations for four years before joining UP.

“As a born lawyer, I have always felt the need to protect the weak and marginalised from a tender age,” she says. “I have a restful night if every individual is afforded the dignity and the respect they deserve. In a nutshell: I hate injustice with a passion, and I make sure to stand up against it even if I have to fight the battle alone.”

She says it is an honour and privilege to be part of an institution as prestigious as UP. “I am living and fulfilling my purpose in life by ensuring that employees are treated fairly, their wellbeing is taken care of, and justice thrives at all times. Ensuring that there are harmonious relations in UP, management and unions are capacitated, disciplinary and grievance processes are held procedurally fair and correctly, and that just decisions are made gives me satisfaction that I add value to the efficient running of the University.”

The work is always hectic and challenging, she adds. “A lot of responsibility and accountability is put on our shoulders by both management and the employees. We, however, learn new things through what are seemingly impossible expectations we deal with on a daily basis. We restore humanity, dignity, and respect back to employees’ lives, and that is worth all the pain we go through.”

Advocate Molefe, who hails from the small town of Ottosdal in the North West, says her passion for her work traces from her belief system and personal convictions. She believes her purpose in life is to ensure the rights of employees at every level are protected.

This defender of employee rights joining UP is something to be proud of this Women’s Month, as her sterling work adds to the University’s ranks of excellence.

Her dream of becoming a lawyer began to take shape when she studies law at North-West University and later obtained a master’s degree via Unisa. Today she holds a BProc, LLB, and LLM (Labour Law), and has attained certificates in coaching and mentoring, and alternative dispute resolution, among others.

“The first man to introduce me to labour law in practise was Mr Johan Koen, currently the General Secretary of IMATU, a union in local government, who believed in my ability when I was fresh from articles, and he appointed me as a labour consultant,” she says, expressing gratitude to the people who helped her become the woman she is today. “The faith that Mr Koen had in my abilities was impeccable, and cannot be forgotten. Advocate Job Malobola and Advocate Hlalele Molotsi, my former bosses, assisted me to assert myself in a male-dominated environment. My father, Bishop Samuel Molefe, raised me to be an independent, confident, and outspoken woman. He taught me to believe in myself and to have faith that nothing is impossible if God is by my side.”