Prof Sethulego Matebesi is an Associate Professor and Academic Head of Department of Sociology, says, “South Africa has experienced widespread community protests driven by historical conditions and contemporary pressures.” Prof Matebesi is involved in work that combines research and advocacy work on social movements, protests, governance and public participation at local government level, and mining in South Africa. He is a regular commentator on local socio-economic and political issues in the country.

Prof Matebesi published Civil strife against local governance: Dynamics of community protests in contemporary South Africa, in March 2017. The book is based on a three-year project funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and responds to the challenging question of how ratepayers’ associations in predominantly white areas and concerned groups in predominantly black communities use different protest tactics in response to the same set of grievances.

His earlier work on service-delivery protests has exposed him to political and social commentary for the SABC and various independent radio stations since 2009.