Dr Shingirai Nyakabawu
Dr Shingirai Nyakabawu is a Postdoctoral Fellow whose research focuses on migration, urbanisation, housing, informality, and urban inequality. He completed his PhD in Anthropology at the University of the Western Cape. Shingirai’s broader research interests examine how institutional structures and systems produce, reproduce, or sustain inequalities. His work has explored these questions across various fields, including migration, housing, waste management, urban governance, and development. He has experience in mixed-methods research, including fieldwork, qualitative data analysis and policy research. He has also undertaken corruption risk assessments in South African local government, with a particular focus on the Eastern Cape, for Transparency International in partnership with Corruption Watch.
Research focus
- Migration and urbanisation
- Housing and urban informality
- Urban inequality and governance
- Mixed-methods and policy research
Selected publications
- Nyakabawu, S. 2026. Illegality and Precarity: Capital Accumulation and the Structural Vulnerability of Undocumented Zimbabwean Migrants in South Africa, Afrika Focus 39, 1-26 doi: https://doi.org/10.163/2031356X-20260103
- Nyakabawu, S. 2025. Home, Diaspora and Beyond: Exploring Notions of Belonging Among Zimbabwean Migrants in South Africa. African Studies, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/00020184.2025.2483659
- Nyakabawu, S and Schenck, C. 2025. Exploration of waste management practices of backyard dwellers in Fisantekraal, South Africa, Urban Forum 12 (4) 20-40 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-025-09535-8
- Nyakabawu, S. (2025). Leveraging Networks for Entrepreneurial Success: A Study of Zimbabwean Entrepreneurs in South Africa. Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/15562948.2025.2512798
- Nyakabawu, S. 2023. Migrant Arrival Infrastructures and Their Impact on Zimbabwean Mobility and Integration in South Africa. Anthropology Southern Africa. 46 (4) pp 288-300 https://doi.org/10.1080/23323256.2023.2261512
- Nyakabawu, S. 2023. The Entrepreneurial Habitus of Zimbabweans in South Africa. Journal of Asian and African Studies https://doi.org/10.1177/00219096231197766
- Nyakabawu S. 2022. Legal Violence: Waiting for Zimbabwe Exemption Permit in South Africa, Journal of Law, Society and Development https://doi.org/10.25159/2520-9515/10639
- Nyakabawu, S. 2022. Legal Aliens: Experiencing Civic Marginalisation in Entrepreneurship in South Africa. Frontiers in Human Dynamics-Refugees and Conflict 4:860406. https://doi.org/10.3389/fhumd.2022.860406