Mbongiseni Buthelezi is the Executive Director of the Public Affairs Research Institute and an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Johannesburg. His research focuses on studying land, governance and the state in South Africa. He is interested in trajectories of land reform, the role of traditional authorities in land governance, the study of institutions of the state as well as on corruption and state capture. He explores how we can think with pre-colonial pasts to forge decolonial futures in areas ranging from identity and archives to governance and state building. Mbongiseni holds a PhD in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University in New York. His most recent co-edited publication with Peter Vale is State Capture in South Africa: How and Why it Happened (2023, Wits University Press).
Mbongiseni Buthelezi
Publications
Buthelezi, M. and D. Skosana (2018) ‘The Salience of Chiefs In Post-Apartheid South Africa: Reflections on the Nhlapo Commission’, in J. Comaroff and J. Comaroff (eds) The Politics of Custom in Africa, pp. 100–35. Chicago, IL; London: University of Chicago Press.
Olver, C., R. Brunette and M. Buthelezi (2017) ‘Party Political Funding and the South African State’. Submission to the Parliamentary Ad-hoc Committee on the Funding of Political Parties. Working Paper. Johannesburg: Public Affairs Research Institute.
Chipkin, Swilling and Buthelezi et al. (2017) ‘Betrayal of the Promise: How South Africa is Being Stolen’. An SCRP report. Cape Town, Stellenbosch, Johannesburg: State Capacity Research Project.
Buthelezi, M. (2016) ‘Why are you learning Zulu again?’ Roundtable on Mark Sanders’ Learning Zulu, Safundi. Journal of South African and American Studies, 18(1), pp. 16-19.
Buthelezi, M. (2016) ‘Black Sash: Organisational Evaluation’. A PARI report. Johannesburg: Public Affairs Research Institute.
