Two masters in a year no small feat for deputy speaker Lehlogonolo Masoga

Obtaining two masters degrees in one year brought pride for the deputy speaker of Limpopo's legislature, but his research revealed a worrying culture among his colleagues.

Lehlogonolo Masoga, 41, spoke to Sowetan recently after being conferred with a second masters degree within two months.

Masoga graduated with a masters in developmental studies at the University of Limpopo (UL) during September, which was followed by a masters of science in leadership from Leeds Beckett University in the UK during October.

For his second degree, Masoga researched the topic "The Effectiveness of Performance Management Systems" using the provincial legislature as a case study.

Masoga said his findings revealed that public servants felt entitled to performance bonuses regardless of whether they performed well or not.

He said the performance management systems were also found to be dysfunctional.

"It got me very worried because employees have a perception that performance management reward is more of an entitlement to them irrespective of the output in performing their work," Masoga said.

His research was done through a survey and interviews involving 106 employees at the legislature in both managerial and nonmanagerial positions.

Masoga said there was a need to change the culture [of work] among public servants.

"Until such time that you change the work ethic and the culture within the public service you will not win the battle against a sense of entitlement by civil servants," he said.

Born in Jane Furse in Sekhukhune, Masoga has held various leadership positions including being the former MEC for transport and the provincial ANCYL deputy chairman. Masoga plans on pursing a PhD degree next year. He said graduating with his first masters degree was a proud moment. "I was pretty excited about completing my master's degree with the University of Limpopo."

The father of four said juggling work, family and his studies was not easy as he had to travel to Swaziland to attend contact classes.

"I have over time come to appreciate that the argument that there is no time to study when you are working and when your are a parent is actually baseless," Masoga said.

On education costs, Masoga said "free education is a desirable thing and our government has to work very hard to realise it".