Nelson Mandela University’s Raymond Mhlaba Centre for Governance and Leadership (RMC), based in the Faculty of Humanities, has approved its Research Agenda 2026–2030.
This is a five-year framework guiding the Centre’s research, advisory and capacity-building work in support of ethical, capable and developmental governance in South Africa and the wider region.
Named after Raymond Mhlaba, the first Premier of the Eastern Cape, the Centre advances the University’s Vision 2030 commitment to knowledge production in service of society, drawing mainly on the Social Justice and Democracy institutional research theme.
The agenda is anchored in four governance failures the Centre has identified as the most pressing – and most tractable – for the 2026–2030 period: coalition instability and leadership churn in local government; the “implementation gap” between national and provincial policy and local capacity; the erosion of ethical integrity and recurring procurement failure in public institutions; and climate vulnerability and infrastructure decay amid extreme weather and water scarcity.
According to acting Director of the RMC, Dr Ongama Mtimka, the Centre will concentrate its work over the next five years on three strategic focus areas:
• Reimagining Developmental Local Government, prioritising the Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo, as well as North-West and Mpumalanga;
• Ethical, Capable and Transformational Leadership, building accountability across the “quadruple helix” of government, business, academia and civil society; and
• Resilience and Prosperity in Complex Systems, strengthening intergovernmental relations, climate governance and responses to technological change.
“The three main priorities in our research agenda over the next five years underscore our commitment to playing a more meaningful role in equipping stakeholders to catalyse development in key provinces, addressing the political-economic geography of apartheid. Leading for development and prosperity in complex systems should be our collective responsibility,” says Chairperson of the Centre’s Advisory Board and Faculty of Humanities Executive Dean, Professor Pamela Maseko.
Each focus area is tied to concrete, actionable outputs, ranging from diagnostic tools to training frameworks and applied policy briefs.
Over the agenda period, the Centre will also expand its postdoctoral research programme and its network of research associates. Flagship commitments include new Short Learning Programmes and Leadership Fellowships, formal partnerships with multilateral agencies and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), and an annual flagship public lecture series.
Nelson Mandela University says the Research Agenda 2026–2030 reflects its Vision 2030 aspiration to be a dynamic African university recognised for generating knowledge that advances a socially just and sustainable future, in direct service of the country’s developmental and governance priorities.
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