Populism & Social Cohesion

In this episode, Dr Sithembile Mbete joins us to speak about populism in the era of democratic decline. Sithembile is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Pretoria where she teaches international relations and South African politics and an Associate Fellow of the Centre for Governance Innovation. She is also a visiting researcher at the African Leadership Centre at King’s College London. She has a DPhil in International Relations from the University of Pretoria. She completed her undergraduate, honours and masters degrees at the University of Cape Town. In 2014 she was a visiting scholar at the Department of Political Science and Balsillie School of International Affairs at the University of Waterloo in Canada.Sithembile has done research, consulting, speaking and facilitation work for organisations including Teneo Intelligence, Liberty, Electoral Institute of Southern Africa, Rand Merchant Bank (RMB), ABSA, Standard Bank and Edelman South Africa. She has done work for the South African Parliament, several South African government departments, the United Nations Human Rights Council and several foreign embassies in South Africa. She is a 2019 OSF-SA Democracy Fellow for research on the South African electoral system. She comments frequently in the media on a range of issues in South African politics. She comments frequently in the media on a range of issues in South African politics. She is Kaya FM’s resident political analyst and has a regular slot on David o’Sullivan’s breakfast show. Sithembile has been part of eNCA’s team of analysts for the ANC’s 2017 elective conference, the State of the Nation Address in 2018 and 2019, and the 2019 National and Provincial election. Sithembile joined the University of Pretoria from The Presidency of South Africa where she was a researcher in the secretariat of the National Planning Commission. She contributed to the drafting of the National Development Plan in the areas of public service reform, anti-corruption policy and community safety.