Meet our new staff at WSG
- Kemantha Govender
We are excited to announce the arrival of our new academic staff members.
Rekgotsofetse Chikane is a lecturer in public policy and is also a political commentator, activist and the author of Breaking a Rainbow, Building a Nation: The Politics behind the #MustFall Movements. He is a graduate of the University of Oxford (Blavatnik School of Government) having completed his Master in Public Policy degree in 2017 and he completed a Bachelor in Social Science (Hons) degree at the University of Cape Town in 2015 specialising in Public Policy, Public Administration and Economics.
He is Mandela-Rhodes Scholar, a Mandela-Washington Fellow, a Chevening Scholar, a former Masters Fellow at the Public Affairs Research Institute, one of Mail and Guardians Top 200 Young People (2016 – Civil Society) and an Obama Africa Programme leader for 2019.
He previously worked as the National President of InkuluFreeHeid, a non-partisan, youth organisation focused on deepening democracy and enhancing social cohesion in South Africa. He also worked as a Strategist at MegaTech AI, an emerging technology consulting firm.
Dr Halfdan Lynge-Mangueira is a senior lecturer at the Wits School of Governance. He has more than 15 years of experience an academic, public servant, and governance consultant. At the WSG he teaches mainly analytical methods.
He completed his doctoral degree at the University of Oxford and previously worked at the University of Cape Town. His research in comparative politics and political economy has been published in international peer-reviewed journals, including European Political Science Review and Studies in Comparative International Development.
Between 2005 and 2011, he worked as a governance and elections expert at the UN in Africa and Asia. His last post was as special assistant to the UN Resident Coordinator and head of the UN Resident Coordinator’s Office in Bangladesh, where he supervised a team of advisors to the UN country team.
Lynge-Mangueira is the founder and board chairperson of Sauti, a Mozambican polling and public opinion research company. In addition, he has consulted for the World Bank, European Commission, United Nations Development Programme, International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance, Westminster Foundation for Democracy, and other organisations.
Lihle Ngcobozi is a lecturer in Development and Governance. She graduated from Rhodes University with a Master’s degree in Political Studies and International Relations in 2017, in which she explored how the Women’s Manyano church group offer a space for the public performance of citizenship by black women. Ngcobozi also holds a postgraduate degree in International Relations.
Ngcobozi holds the Allan Gray Center of Leadership Ethics fellowship and is currently an Atlantic Philantropies Scholar.
Previously, she worked as a Researcher at Iranti, which focused on the development of LGBTI rights in Southern Africa.
Dr Caitlin Blaser Mapitsa is a senior lecturer, holding a PhD in Migration and Displacement from the University of the Witwatersrand’s African Centre for Migration and Society. She received an MA from the same institution, a BA from Wellesley college in International Relations and French, and a Postgraduate Diploma from the University of Stellenbosch in Monitoring and Evaluation.
She has worked as an evaluator in civil society, with Resilient Waters evaluating efforts to foster climate resilience in the Okavango and Limpopo river basins, as well as establishing learning systems with the Global Call to Action Against Poverty. She also worked with the Centre for Learning on Evaluation and Results, supporting efforts to strengthen monitoring and evaluation systems within public sector institutions across the region through peer learning.
Her research interests focus on two areas – the first is transboundary governance, of both land and people. She is interested in understanding what drives change in complex social and ecological systems, and which tools can best help us understand these changes. The second is on building contextually relevant evaluation approaches, and how evaluation can be a tool to align institutional practice with values systems and developmental objectives.
Dr Ruth Murambadoro is a senior lecturer in peace, security and governance with over seven years’ experience in conducting transdisciplinary research in marginalised communities in fragile states. She holds a DPhil in Political Sciences, an MA in Political Sciences, BA (Hons) International Relations and BPolSci all from the University of Pretoria (UP). Additionally, she has obtained postgraduate certificates in conflict management, African Thought Leadership, political psychology, post-conflict transitions, and international justice from the International Peace and Security Institute, the Thabo Mbeki Leadership Institute and the Central European University.
She has served on the board of directors of the African Studies Association, USA as representative of the Emerging Scholars Network (2016-2018), and committee member of the Transformation Committee of the Faculty of Humanities at UP (2015-2018). Since 2011, she has been involved in various research projects, which were funded through the CODESRIA Collaborative Research Network, the African Peacebuilding Network, the Templeton Foundation, Irish Aid and the Social Science Research Council.
Her recognised work includes being shortlisted and a runner-up for the Africa Thesis Award under the African Studies Centre Leiden, Leiden University, Netherlands in 2015. She is a recipient of the Visiting Research Fellowship from the Centre of African Studies Cambridge (2019), the TWAS-DFG Cooperation Visits Award (2019), a Guest Researcher fellowship award from the Nordic Africa Institute (2020). Additionally, Murambadoro was a recipient of the USA-based African Studies Association Presidential Fellowship Award (2015), a three-time recipient of the Next Generation Social Sciences in Africa Fellowship Award (2015-2018), a recipient of the African Pathways Doctoral Fellowship (2015-2017) under the National Institution for the Humanities and Social Sciences and the Tuks Young Research Leader Award from UP (2017).
Some of her research has been published by Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, African Journal for Conflict Resolution, the Strategic Review of Southern Africa, OSSREA and Kujenga Amani to mention a few. Her research experience and interests include peacebuilding, transitional justice, African justice systems, governance, democratic citizenship, gender, sexual and reproductive health and rights and sexual and gender-based violence.
Dr John Khumalo is a senior lecturer and holds a doctoral degree in economics, Master of Business Administration (MBA) in Finance both from the North-West University, as well as a Master of Science degree in Economics from the National University of Lesotho. During his Master’s studies in economics, he specialised in monetary economics, corporate finance and investment with a view to pursue a career in the financial sector, unbeknown that he would end up in academia. He took up the position of a lecturer in economics at the North-West University in 2008 and his academic skills in the field were nurtured there. During this period, Khumalo held the position of Programme Manager (Head of Department).
Prior to joining the Wits School of Governance, he held a senior lectureship position in economics at the University of South Africa in the Department of Economics, where he was involved with teaching econometrics and advanced international economics for nearly seven years. He also served at various committees while there, including among others being a member of the department’s Higher Research Committee and college short-learning programme committee. He was an active supervisor of masters and doctoral students in monetary policy shocks, investment and economic growth. He has been an National Research Foundation reviewer and panel member on EMAS and Education and Learning Research cluster since 2018. Khumalo’s research focuses more on finance and aid for development and economic growth in the sub-Saharan African and emerging economies. Khumalo currently facilitates lectures in public finance and supervises masters and doctoral students within the school.