Dr Buntu Siwisa had returned to ACCORD as Senior Research Fellow in the Knowledge Production Department at ACCORD. Dr Siwisa previously worked at ACCORD as Manager of the Knowledge Production Department. He was a Rhodes Scholar (2000, St. Peter’s College) and a 2012 Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellow.
Prior to this, he was a Senior Political Analyst and Acting Country Manager (Zimbabwe Desk) in the Department of International Relations and Cooperation. He managed the analytical responsibilities and staff component of the Desk, while also undertaking the broader diplomatic duties of the Desk. He had first-hand mediation experiences in Southern Africa, as well as observing and monitoring elections in Zimbabwe (2008); the Republic of Southern Sudan referendum (2011); and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2011.
Dr Siwisa’s academic experience covers having worked as a Programme Manager for the Masters in South African Politics and Political Economy, and as Senior Lecturer in Politics at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He also had a stint working as a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Democratic Development in Accra, Ghana. His publications, appearing in the Journal of Southern African Studies (JSAS) and in Development Dilemmas in Post-Apartheid South Africa (2011) (eds.) Bill Freund and Harald Witt, extend to areas of municipal services delivery and local government restructuring. Another focal area is social cohesion and nation building. Dr Siwisa is member of the BRICS Academic Forum, and represents South Africa in the Peace and Security cluster in the BRICS Academic Forum
Also dabbling in literature, Dr Siwisa’s fictional work has been published in an anthology of short stories, In the Rapids (2001), Icarus (2001), and LitNet (1999). He continues to write longer and shorter fictional narratives.
