Ms. Treasure Thembisile Maphanga has dedicated her career towards poverty reduction, establishing an enabling environment for private sector development, trade, investment and industrial development. She has led major programmes in the spheres of policy development, trade-related capacity building and investment promotion, and people-centred development. She has served as a leader and an advisor to Government, public enterprises, inter-governmental organisations, non-governmental organisations and private sector organisations.

Treasure Maphanga commenced her professional career as a Human Resources Practitioner in 1990, worked for eight years with multinational companies in Swaziland and South Africa in senior human resources management positions in different export sectors, including platinum mining, sugar and pulp and paper. She was a Business Owner/Consultant in Swaziland providing professional services to private companies, public enterprises, international agencies and some non-profit organizations for a total of seven years. At the age of 36, she was the first female appointed to serve as Chief Executive Officer in the Federation of Swaziland Employers and Chamber of Commerce and was instrumental in the operationalisation of a successful merger and institutionalising public-private dialogue in Swaziland. She was the founding Chairperson of the Conciliation, Mediation Arbitration Commission (CMAC) from 2000-2003, and the founding Chairperson of the Swaziland Competitions Commission. She has served on the Business Economic and Advisory Council, SOS Children’s Villages Board of Trustees (Swaziland chapter), First National Bank, Swazimed (Medscheme) and served for ten years is on the Waterford Kamhlaba United World College of Southern Africa Governing Council.

In 2011 she joined the Young Global Leaders Alumni of the World Economic Forum. From 2008-11 she was the Chief, Office for Africa, International Trade Centre (ITC), a joint agency of the World Trade Organisation and the United Nations, based in Geneva where she coordinated the ITC strategy and programmes in Africa. She served briefly as the Deputy Country Director for ICAP Swaziland before joining the African Union Commission in April 2012 as the Director, Trade and Industry responsible for trade, industry, mineral resources, blue economy and customs matters within the Commission. She was responsible for managing the African Continental Free Trade Area negotiations and implementation strategy as well as the African Union Commodity strategy, two flagship initiatives under Agenda 2063. The AfCFTA project is one of the most ambitious and successful continental integration initiatives undertaken by the African Union, encompassing trade in goods, trade in services, investment, intellectual property rights and e-commerce. It is a legally binding treaty signed by 44 countries on the day it was lunched, with 54 countries and ratified by 28 countries within 16 months and entry into force within 14 months.

From April 2019 engaged as strategic advisor to the Kingdom of Eswatini on various continental initiatives including the implementation of the African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement and Special Envoy of His Majesty King Mswati III on the AfCFTA Bid. In September 2019 appointed the Project Director for the African Ecommerce Platform implementation for the Southern African region and charged with coordinating the establishment of all the five regional offices and headquarters once these have been identified by the AeTrade Board of Directors.

Treasure Maphanga holds an Executive Master’s Degree in International Negotiations and Policy making from the Graduate Institute of Geneva, Switzerland (2010), a postgraduate certificate in Strategy, Leadership and Change Management from Wits Business School, South Africa (1995) and a Bachelor of Arts (Economics) from Trent University, Canada (1989).