Email address: khwezilomso@gmail.com

Contact number: 0761055849

BPolsci (UP), BA Honours (UP), MA (UP), PhD (Wits)

Dr Khwezi Mabasa is a lecturer and researcher at the Centre for Researching Education and Labour (REAL). He is also a member of the DTIC Ministerial ITAT Advisory Committee and Special Adviser to the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition (DTIC). 

Khwezi has worked as Economic and Social Policy Lead as well as Programme Manager at the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), as a part-time Sociology lecturer at the University of Pretoria and at Wits, as a Senior Researcher at the  Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) on political economy, and as the National Social Policy Coordinator of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).

Khwezi's research focuses on heterodox political economy, labour studies and racial capitalism. He has an interdisciplinary background, with an MA (Political Science) from the University of Pretoria and a PhD in Development Sociology at Wits.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND PRESENTATIONS:

Mabasa, K. (2024). "Workers and Social Ownership." Vuyisile Mini Workers School, Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU), Makhanda, 28 October-1 November.

Mabasa, K. (2024). "Racial Redress is Essential for Inclusive Development". Mail and Guardian, 14 May.

Mabasa, K. (2023). "South Africa’s Market-led Democracy Undermines Human Rights." Mail and Guardian, 21 March.  

Mabasa, K. (2023). "Chris Hani's Black Marxism." Africa is a Country.

Mabasa, K. (2022). " Mapping South Africa’s Changing Political Economy and the Scope for Working-Class Agency." Vuyisile Mini Workers School, Neil Aggett Labour Studies Unit (NALSU), Makhanda, 31 October-4 November.

Mabasa, K. (2022). "Racial Capitalism: Marxism and Decolonial Politics." In:  S. J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni & M. Ndlovu (eds.). Marxism and Decolonisation in the 21st Century: Living Theories and True Ideas. New York: Routledge.                                                                                          

B. Mabasa and K. Mabasa (eds.).  (2021). Land in South Africa: Contested Meanings and Nation Formation. Johannesburg: MISTRA. 

Mabasa, K. (2021). "Abafazi Bayazbambela: A Gendered Response to South Africa's Agrarian Question." In: B. Mabasa & K. Mabasa (eds.)  (2021). Land in South Africa: Contested Meanings and Nation Formation. Johannesburg: MISTRA. 

Mabasa, K. and M. Qobo. (2020). "The Impact of New Technologies on Labour Relations and Market Structures in the Economy: A Case of Uber". In: Z. Mazibuko & E. Kraemer-Mbula (eds.). South Africa's Fourth Industrial Future. Johannesburg: MISTRA.

A.Cawe and K. Mabasa (eds.).  (2020). Beyond the Tenderpreneurship Discourse: Rethinking Black Business and Economic Empowerment. Johannesburg: MISTRA.

Mabasa, K. (2020). "The Developmental State and Black Economic Empowerment: Lessons from East Asian Capitalist Models." In: A. Cawe and K. Mabasa (eds.).  (2020). Beyond the Tenderpreneurship Discourse: Rethinking Black Business and Economic Empowerment. Johannesburg: MISTRA.

Mabasa, K. (2019). "Democratic Marxism and the National Question: Race and Class in Post-Apartheid SA." In: V. Sagtar (ed.). Racism After Apartheid: Challenges for Marxism and Anti-Racism. Johannesburg: Wits University Press.

Mabasa, K. and C. Chinguno. (2018). "Trade Union Organising in the Mining Sector: A Structural Perspective on Worker Insurgency and Shifting Union Strategies." In: S. Valiani (ed). The Future of Mining: Sunrise or Sunset?  Johannesburg: MISTRA.

Mabasa, K. (2017). "The Rebellion of the Born Unfrees: Fallism and the Neo-Colonial Corporate University. "Strategic Review of Southern Africa, 39 (2): 94-116.  

Orr, L. and K. Mabasa. (2017). "Labour Unions and South Africa's Foreign Policy: The Case of COSATU." In:  C. Landsberg and L. Masters (eds.). From the Outside In: Domestic Actors and South Africa's Foreign Policy. Johannesburg: Jacana.

Mabasa, K. and Z. Mqolomba. (2016). "Revisiting China's Developmental State: Lessons for Africa." Strategic Review for Southern Africa, 38 (1): 69-84.              

Mabasa, K. (2015). "Privatization and the Health Crisis in Post-Apartheid South Africa." The Shopsteward 23 (6).

Last Modified: Tue, 21 Oct 2025 10:11:55 SAST