Post-Doc Fellow
Kennedy Manduna is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the International Research Group on Authoritarianism and Counter-Strategies of the Rosa Luxemburg-Stiftung, hosted by the Wits School of Governance (WSG) at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, under the mentorship of Dr Caryn Abrahams. For the past seven years, he has been a researcher, teaching assistant and part-time lecturer within the WSG. He completed his PhD in Political Economy and Public Policy in 2022 at the WSG, working with Prof. Gavin Cawthra, Prof. Patrick Bond and Prof. Erin McCandless. His current research focuses on the intersection of the political economy of extractivism, authoritarianism, indigeneity, economic indigenisation, Rights of the Indigenous People and uneven development. Research Examining the intersectional realities of the rise of authoritarianism, resource nationalism, uneven development and the human rights concerns of the indigenous peoples: Evidence from Zimbabwe’s and South Africa’s experiences with extractive industry indigenisation. The drivers and motivations for extracting and developing mineral resource endowments and fossil fuels, particularly in the Global South, are benefiting the mining companies and seriously affecting the lives and livelihoods of the Indigenous peoples, with governments playing enabling and active roles in these mining accumulation by dispossession processes. This accumulation logic in today’s mining capitalism results in a tale of treasuries on one pole (i.e. massive accumulation by the mining companies and local politicians) and a tale of tragedies on the other pole (i.e. massive dispossessions and dislocations of the Indigenous peoples). The competing explanation for this mining accumulation by dispossession logic is that much of what is left of these natural resource endowments is situated on Indigenous peoples’ lands. This study, by taking South Africa and Zimbabwe as case studies, is, therefore, examining the intersectional realities of the rise of authoritarianism, resource nationalism, uneven development and the human rights concerns of the indigenous peoples, with Zimbabwe’s and South Africa’s experiences with extractive industry indigenisation as case studies. Furthermore, my account on the intersection of the political economy of extractivism, indigeneity, indigenisation, Rights of the Indigenous People and uneven development, based on my PhD, is currently being turned into a monograph under a contract with Routledge Press. Other research interests include public policy, social contract, political settlements, conflict, participation, solidarity and social cohesion.
