John Mubangizi is the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of the Free State. He has been a full professor for more than sixteen years. From January 2005 to April 2007, he served as Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). After that, he served as Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Head of the College of Law and Management Studies at UKZN for ten years.

He is the author of the book titled The Protection of Human Rights in South Africa: A Legal and Practical Guide (2004 and 2013), which is widely used by scholars, practitioners, and students of human rights law in South Africa. Rated as an established researcher by the National Research Foundation (NRF), Mubangizi is widely published, with more than 70 publications to his name. Most of these are in SAPSE-accredited peer-reviewed journals. He has also presented more than 40 academic papers at international conferences across the globe.

Mubangizi is a member of the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf), and served as member and advisor to the Council of ASSAf for three years. He also served as Chairperson of the Higher Education Quality Committee (HEQC) of South Africa and a member of the Council on Higher Education (CHE) for three years. In addition, he serves on various committees and in different ad hoc positions at institutional, national, and international level.