Mr. Esau is a career diplomat with the SA Department of International Relations & Cooperation (DIRCO) and has served in both bilateral and multilateral areas of engagement. He has held numerous posts within DIRCO, and prior to his current assignment served as Director: Levant and Director: Southeast Asia.

Since joining DIRCO in 2005, Mr Esau also served as Deputy Director in the Directorates: Mediterranean Europe (2012 – 2014); Economic Development – Finance for Development (Oct 2005 – Jan 2008) and Economic Relations (Jan 2005 – Sept 2005) and overseas assignments as Counsellor in South Korea (2014 – 2017), Counsellor in Berlin (2008 – 2011).

Prior to joining DIRCO, Mr Esau served as policy adviser at SA’s Department of Trade, Industry & Competition (dtic) and served as SA’s Economic Representative to Germany at the SA Consulate in Munich.

As graduate of the University of Cape Town (UCT) he holds a degree in Economics and postgraduate degree from the University of the Western Cape (UWC), supported by various training and development courses, such as the Leadership & Economic Diplomacy Course afforded through Singapore’s Cooperation Programme (SCP); Public Management Development Programme: University of Pretoria; Multilateral Diplomacy: United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) & the
Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft Management Training Programme from Germany.