Victor Tharage

Victor Tharage is the Director-General (DG) of the National Department of Tourism (NDT) in South Africa.  Amongst others his position as DG promotes and support the growth and development of an equitable, competitive and sustainable tourism sector, enhancing its contribution to national priorities. He serves on the Tourism Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment Charter Council as ex-officio member and head of the Secretariat. He is also served as the National Registrar for Tourist Guides.  While he was a Deputy Director General (DDG) for Policy Knowledge Services his portfolio at NDT included driving the implementation of the National Tourism Sector Strategy (NTSS), sector research, policy development and responsible tourism. He was also the head of the 2010 FIFA World Cup tourism preparations unit at NDT. Some of the key achievements by the sector during his tenure as a DDG have been the development of the NTSS which is the blue print for tourism growth and development as well as the development of the Domestic Tourism Growth Strategy.

A science graduate from the University of Durban-Westville (currently known as University of Kwa-Zulu Natal) with postgraduate training in amongst others management studies from Harvard University in the USA, environmental studies from Galilee College in Israel as well as corporate direction from the Graduate Institute of Management and Technology (GIMT). A product of the legendary Mbilwi Secondary School in Limpopo, Victor is a Norton and Kaplan certified Balanced Scorecard (BSC) strategy practitioner. He is also a trained Company secretary from the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators (ICSA).

Prior to joining the newly formed NDT in 2009, Victor was head of the strategy office responsible for strategy and business performance at the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism (DEAT). He joined DEAT in 2001 as operations manager in the national policy unit for World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) preparation and subsequently driving the development of the National Strategy for Sustainable Development (NSSD). He is also part of the team that put together the only official book on the WSSD negotiations, “Ten days in Johannesburg, a negotiation of hope”. Prior to DEAT, Victor was with Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) and also spent some time in the non-profit and private sector environments.
He is married to Khuliso and they are blessed with two daughters, Tshedza and Mukundi.