Dr Lulu Gwagwa is one of the founders of Lereko Investments (Pty) Ltd, a black-owned investment company focused on infrastructure, energy and industrial services. She continues to advise on development planning and spatial transformation.
A seasoned leader in both public and private sectors, Gwagwa served as CEO of the Independent Development Trust (IDT) from 1998 to 2003. There, she led a restructuring process, repositioning the organisation to focus on development implementation management—a shift that aligned the Trust with South Africa’s emerging post-apartheid priorities.
Prior to that, she was deputy director-general in the national Department of Public Works (1995–1999), where she championed the transformation of the construction industry. Most notably, she launched national public works programme, and the emerging contractor development programme, aimed at fostering entrepreneurship and inclusion in one of South Africa’s most unequal sectors.
Earlier in her career, Gwagwa was a senior lecturer at the University of Natal. She also worked as a development planner in the NGO sector. She has published in the fields of gender, housing and development planning.
She holds a masters in Town & Regional Planning from University of Natal, an MSc in Social Policy and Planning (cum laude) from the London School of Economics, an MPhil from St Augustine College and a PhD from University College London.
Gwagwa currently chairs the boards of Barloworld and FirstRand Empowerment Foundation. She also serves on the board of Woolworths. She is a council member of the Women’s University in Africa.
Beyond business, her passion for social impact continues through the Mhakazi Trust, which she founded. The Trust supports education for orphaned children in Umzimkulu, honouring her family’s legacy. She also founded Traversing Liminality to support young women across the African continent and diaspora.
Lulu was a finalist in the 2001 Nedbank Woman of the Year Awards; one of the 2018 Audi Future Shapers; winner of the 2023 Leadership Spotlight Award; and the 2025 Gender Mainstreaming Positive Role Model Award.
Gwagwa is a Fellow of the inaugural class of the Africa Leadership Initiative (ALI) South Africa, a keen reader of African women writers, and an aspiring photographer. She is a wife and mother of two young adults.