Thuthuzelekani Mvimbi

Fellow: Political Studies Department, MA

I am Thuthuzelekani Mvimbi, a final year Masters student in Political Studies at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) under the supervision of Prof Suren Pillay who is my main supervisor and Prof Anciano my co-supervisor. I come from a small village called uMhlanga in Lady Frere in Eastern Cape and I am the first University graduate at home. I owe my success to my late father Vulile Mvimbi, my late grandfather Mzolisi Mvimbi whom I drew my intellect and Pan Africanist ideology from because he was a PAC and APLA member and to my wonderful and supportive mother Nondiliseko Mvimbi who has been my source of strength.

I am fellow at the Andrew W Mellon Foundation, Centre for Humanities Research (CHR), fellow of the Mellon May Undergraduate Fellowship and lastly a fellow at the Social Science Research Council (SSRC). The title of my Master’s thesis is Gentrification: The Case of Property Development in the Inner-City of Cape Town and the research question poses, Why and How is the City of Cape Town Gentrifying the Inner-City? The first objective is to illustrate that the City of Cape Town perpetuates gentrification in Cape Town and the second objective is to use political philosophy to analyse urban politics in the post-colonial.  My research interests include African Political Philosophy and Political Economy, African Rural-Urban Anthropology, Precolonial, Colonial and Post-State Theories. I am dedicating my academic life to critique Western Epistemologies regarding Africa’s Socio-Economic and Political Development