LAGASA’s Big-picture Purpose

LAGASA’s mission is fundamentally about enhancing capacity through its specialist, bridging approach to boosting educational and vocational excellence.

In turn, LAGASA aims to create continued cycles of excellence, professionalism and accountability with ever-expanding networks of well-capacitated, committed individuals. And, LAGASA will do as much across industries, sectors, disciplines; and within the societies – and so for the individuals and institutions – that comprise them. At the heart of LAGASA’s Mission lies the recognition of the value of a human-centric, individualist approach to institutional difference-making.

LAGASA’s Mission Statement

A Bridging Academy to Build Brillance Brilliantly

  • Noting the importance of developing high-impact social and educational projects, with exceptional leadership, to tackle society’s fast-emerging problems and make the world a better place for all.
  • Embracing the values of the rule of law, dignity, equality, freedom, multiparty democracy, integrity, accountability, sustainable economic development and growth, and the maintenance, of peace, security and freedom.
  • Mindful of the need to advance social and legal justice of excellence through innovative interventions that make tangible socio-legal and political impacts.
  • Acknowledging the importance of top-quality education, training, continued professional and interpersonal development to ‘build brilliance brilliantly’ in the public, private and NGO sectors.
  • Recognising that a credible, skilled and integral legal and public sector – especially, the criminal-justice cluster – is a bulwark against impunity and essential to ensuring quality legal services, access to justice, administrative and social justice, and the realisation of all human rights and freedoms.
  • Appreciating that a proper understanding of the theory and practice of the law, policy, commercial skills and related international best-practice approaches, enhances a culture of excellence, integrity and accountability, thereby reducing various forms of impunity, apathy, incompetence and/or complacency.
  • Acknowledging that in contexts such as (South/ern) Africa, tertiary education, and other ‘siloed’ training offerings, can only do so much, so well given resource and other constraints and that there is thus a need for innovative, synergistic efforts to build complementary bridges with these offerings in the mutual interest of effectively addressing shortcomings and skills gaps.
  • Cognisant of the need to ensure that the likes of our future lawyers, prosecutors, businesspeople, civil servants and public leaders are appropriately skilled, inspired, ethical, resilient, adaptable and open to constant professional learning and growth in the constant pursuant of excellence and professionalism.
  • Mindful that by implementing such effective mechanisms to enhance such individual attributes, we will improve the excellence, professionalism and resilience of stakeholder institutions themselves, which will in turn lead to ripple effects across sectors, societies and states.
  • Appreciating the importance of coupling quality substantive education with fresh pedagogical approaches that marry theory with the relevant practical and interpersonal skills needed to enhance excellent, integral, courageous leadership and management, and thereby help rebuild a culture of excellence and accountability in South Africa, Africa and beyond.

Given these objectives, LAGASA will capacitate not only its individual participants, but also their stakeholder and/or donor institutions, which will thereby free up resources. This win-win outcome will enable these institutions to be better placed to serve the public interest, their ‘clients’, and/or other stakeholders excellently, expeditiously and as cost-effectively as possible – a win-win for the individual, the institution, and the existing educational offerings.

LAGASA’s Organisational Structure and How it facilitates the Attainment of its Mission as a Bridging Academy of Excellence

During inception phase, LAGASA was incubated as an institutional project of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI).

With the GI’s continued support and encouragement, LAGASA has thus since launched as an independent organisation to deliver on its more focussed mandate of delivering proactive, professionalism-enhancing efforts effectively – and do so with an institutional structure that renders it fit for this purpose.

LAGASA’s organisational structure is comprised of a corporate entity (a sole proprietorship) and a not-for-profit, public-benefit-activity (PBA) – sections 30 and 18A Income-Tax-Act compliant – PBA Trust, which is in the process of being established and whose Trustees are experts in the fields of law, fiscal management, PBA project-development and education.

LAGASA’s bifurcated organisational structure enables it to serve a wide variety of stakeholder and donor needs and objectives and do so with excellence and cost-effectiveness.

Ultimately, as an umbrella institutional initiative, LAGASA fulfils its core goal of advancing the public interest by strengthening the rule of law and democratic rights through the development and implementation of its cutting-edge, grassroots, professionalism-enhancing modalities; irrespective of whether they are implemented through LAGASA’s commercial, or its not-for-profit, structure.