Angelo Fick is the Director of Research at ASRI. Before joining ASRI, he spent nearly half a decade as a resident current affairs and news analyst in the broadcast sector in South Africa.

For two decades he taught across a variety of disciplines in the Humanities and Applied Sciences in universities in South Africa and Europe. His research is informed by critical & race theory, feminism, colonial discourse theory, and post-structuralism.

He has written widely on post-millennial post-apartheid South Africa’s political economy, and remains interested in broader issues of justice, freedom, and equality. Most recently he taught courses on colonial discourse theory and postcolonial culture in the Department of Visual Culture at the University of Pretoria.

He has supervised graduate work on the representation of women politicians in South African media, the figuration of subjectivity in contemporary critical theory, and most recently, an analysis of the relationship between national sovereignty and supra-national organisations in the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Recently his work has appeared in the Mail & Guardian, the Journal of Commonwealth Literature, and English in Africa.

Imraan Buccus writes a series of opinion pieces that appears fortnightly in the national media; with the intent of compiling his contributions into a book at year-end. Imraan is the academic director of a university study abroad program on political transformation and concurrently a Research Fellow in the School of Social Sciences at UKZN. Imraan is also editor of Al Qalam.

He is a newspaper columnist and is often called upon by television and radio stations to offer political analysis. Imraan is widely published, in academic journals and book chapters, in the area of participatory democracy, poverty and civil society. Buccus is the former editor of Critical Dialogue, a journal of Public Participation in review. He has presented extensively at academic conferences around the world. His last paper entitled, ‘ Democratic transitions and liberation movements in power: a closer look at the ANC’ was presented at the African Studies conference in San Diego, California in December. Buccus was a Ford Foundation PhD Research Fellow at the Centre for International Development Issues, at Radboud University, Nijmegen in The Netherlands.

He was Open Society Foundation Media Fellow twice in recent years, and in 2009 he appeared on the prestigious Mail & Guardian list of South Africa’s 200 Leading Young South Africans. Imraan has experience in the civil society sector, having served in research and policy NGOs for many years. During this time, he was involved in a number of international research projects and co-authored the National Framework on Public Participation for the South African government. During his time at the Centre for Public Participation, he led an initiative to bring policy making spaces closer to ordinary people and also led a project to assess the state of participatory democracy in Namibia.

He has wide ranging experience working with various donor agencies including the Ford Foundation, NiZA, EU, Kellogg Foundation and the Open Society Foundation. In the early 2000’s Buccus worked as academic coordinator of the Workers College, a progressive experiential education college for workers from the trade union movement, where he developed a passion for experiential education and its personal and academic developmental potential.

Lerato Pamela Mahwai is an accomplished researcher and academic, specializing in qualitative and quantitative social research. Having recently completed her Ph.D. in Development Studies at the University of Johannesburg, Lerato’s academic journey also includes a Master of Philosophy in Social Policy and Development (2021) and a Master’s in Research Psychology (2016), complemented by a Bachelor of Psychology (2014). Her research interests focus on socio-emotional development, psychosocial support in education, and mental health interventions.

Lerato’s professional career spans over seven years in research, alongside earlier experience in trauma counseling. Her counseling work included volunteering with organizations such as Childline Johannesburg and Sparrow Schools, where she provided individual and group support, implemented psychoeducation programs, and facilitated interventions for children with learning and behavioral challenges. These experiences have informed her empathetic approach to research and community engagement.

As a Research Associate at the Auwal Socio-economic Research Institute, Lerato conducted impactful social research, published scholarly articles, and collaborated with NGOs to address civil society challenges. She has also contributed to significant projects as a Senior Field Researcher at Benita Williams Evaluation and a Field Researcher at Social Survey Africa.

Lerato’s extensive skills include data collection, analysis, proposal writing, and training, with expertise in tools such as SPSS, Atlas.ti, and Kobo Collect. A recognized speaker, she has presented her research at international forums and contributed to publications addressing barriers to education and mental health in South Africa.

Beyond her academic and professional endeavors, Lerato is a highly organized and innovative individual who thrives on solving problems and delivering high-quality work. She enjoys engaging with diverse communities, which enhances her ability to conduct meaningful research and provide insights that drive social change.

An ASRI FLP Alumni (Class of 2017), Unathi Twala holds a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies and International Relations from the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). With 18 years of experience, she brings extensive B2B and B2C expertise in corporate communications, stakeholder engagement, and brand reputation management. Her experience spans multiple sectors including FMCG, Higher Education, Broadcasting, and Banking, with both South African and global focus.

Unathi is skilled in crafting compelling internal messaging, driving employee engagement initiatives, and aligning communication strategies with organizational goals. She excels in change management communication, content development, and crisis response, maintaining transparency and trust throughout organizations. Her passion lies in fostering strong internal culture through effective storytelling and leadership communication, leveraging her expertise in strategic messaging and internal brand alignment to enhance organizational cohesion and employee experience.

Zona Mboniswa is the Programme Manager of ASRI’s Municipal Oversight and Accountability Programme. This programme trains and develops leaders and activists in Municipalities across South Africa to hold elected leaders accountable at a local government level. Currently, the programme has projects running in 6 municipalities across the country, where Zona leads project teams in applying theory to practice, leveraging existing legislation and engaging Section 79 committees to strengthen oversight and accountability.

Zona joined us from the Wits Health Consortium, where he served as a Project Administrator for the Wits RHI. He has graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Governance and Political Transformation from the University of the Free State, and a Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree in Public Management and Governance from the University of Johannesburg.

His tenure as a Project Administrator at one of South Africa’s leading research organisations has given him a keen awareness of the critical role that oversight, and accountability play in ensuring that public resources are used efficiently and effectively to provide services to poor and working-class communities across South Africa.

Previously at ASRI as an HSRC-DSI intern, Luthando is the current Programme Manager for the ASRI 2025 Future Leaders Programme. Luthando holds a Master of Arts degree in Development Studies from Wits University. She furthermore holds a Bachelor of Arts Honours in Development Studies from Wits University and a Bachelor of Social Science majoring in International Studies and Development Studies from Monash South Africa. She is a passionate and results-driven advocate for women’s rights, social justice, and equality. Luthando is deeply committed to the well-being of women and their environment, working to ensure they have access to equitable opportunities to reach their full potential.

She believes in the transformative power of stories and knows how vital it is to provide a platform for diverse voices to be heard, respected, and valued. Her approach is grounded in the belief that every woman deserves the opportunity to thrive, and she is guided by the ideals of Ubuntu—emphasizing our shared humanity, interconnectedness, and the importance of uplifting one another.

With experience in the non-profit sector, she has developed and led initiatives that empower individuals in disadvantaged communities, focusing on inclusion, advocacy, and sustainable change. Her intersectional feminist approach ensures that the diverse needs of marginalized groups are central to every project.

Adaptable and strategic, she believes that meaningful change is driven by collaboration and collective action. Luthando joins us from Aphrike Research where she served as a Research Assistant and Project Administrator.

Luthando looks forward to being a part of the FLP 2025, and hopes that this experience will be fulfilling!

Awarded the Ruth First Fellowship for 2014 at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg – Ebrahim Fakir until recently headed the Political Parties and Parliamentary Programme at EISA [2010-2016].

He was formerly Senior Researcher and Analyst at the Centre for Policy Studies in Johannesburg (2003-2009), he worked at the Institute for Democracy in South Africa (IDASA) [1998-2003] at both IDASA’s Pretoria and Cape Town offices and he also worked at the first democratic Parliament of the Republic of South Africa (1996-1998) in the Legilsation amd Oversight Division.

Before that, he was junior lecturer in English Literature at the then University of Durban-Westville (1994-1996) and continues to teach as a sessional lecturer in contemporary political economy at the Sustainability Institute at Stellenbosch University. He writes in the popular press as well as academic and policy journals on politics, development, and the state.

He is used as a commentator and facilitator by the domestic and international media, business and other organisations. He read for a degree in English Literature at the University of the Witwatersrand; Johannesburg where he was elected on to the Students Representative Council. He was visiting fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex (2005/2006) and was a Draper Hills Summer Fellow at the Centre for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University, for 2011.