The municipality has appointed the former head of its enterprise project management office and the city manager’s specialist adviser as the new chief operations officer.

THE appointment of Margaret-Ann Diedricks was confirmed by Council on Thursday, December 1, 2011 during its special meeting.

Prior to her new appointment Diedericks was the head of the municipality’s Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO) and Specialist Adviser to the City Manager.

Hiedricks has broad academic achievements. She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of the Western Cape (cum laude), an Honours Degree in Applied Psychology obtained with an award for Academic Excellence from the University of the Witwatersrand, a Masters Degree in Psychology from the University of the Western Cape, and an Executive Advanced Programme obtained from the UNISA Business School in 2002.

She joined the public service 1997 as a Research Services Manager at the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, where she also occupied the positions of Director: Information and Liaison Services and Deputy Provincial Secretary from 2002 to 2006.

Her responsibilities during this period included managing and coordinating research projects, management of the Information Centre, Research Services, the Public Relations Unit and Media Liaison.

As the Deputy Provincial Secretary Diedricks, was responsible for the Organisational Strategic and Operations Management, Legislature and the Directorate’s Budget Control, institutional staff development and ensuring good corporate governance.

Between 2006 and 2009, she was the Head of Community Safety Department in Gauteng. Some of her achievements at the Community Safety Department were overseeing the successful turnaround of administrative systems which led to the achievement of a clean audit by the 2008/09 financial year and an award for the “Best Reporting Department” by the South African Institute of Government Auditors.

Diedricks also spearheaded the development and implementation of the Gauteng Provincial Safety Strategy, an oversight system for monitoring the performance of the Law Enforcement Agencies in the Gauteng, and expansion of the Patroller Program in communities.

Later, she was appointed the Chief Operations Officer and later Acting Director General in the Office of the Premier in Gauteng.

Her responsibilities included overseeing the implementation of the Program of Action for the Gauteng Government in her capacity as Cabinet Secretary. Diedricks ensured the functioning of the Provincial Cabinet led by the Premier, stakeholder management and provision of advice on policy matters for the Premier and Cabinet.

Source: www.ekurhuleni.com