Professor Hangwelani Magidimisha-Chipungu is an academic in the Department of Town and Regional Planning, University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN). She is an NRF-rated researcher and the first black-female South African born to graduate with a PhD in Town and Regional Planning from UKZN. She is also the first black South African born women to be appointed Associate Professor in Town and Regional Planning at UKZN with a Masters in the same field and a degree in Geography and Environment – both from UKZN.
Prof. Magidimisha-Chipungu record of service spans but not limited to the City Planning Commission for eThekwini Municipality, advisory committee of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA-KZN), member of KwaZulu-Natal Tribunal and up to late a Board member of SACPLAN. In view of a long history excellence, she was recently appointed as the first SARChI Chair in Inclusive Cities in South Africa. The Chair is co-funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF) and South African Cities Network. The Chair is the first in the Built Environment Cluster at UKZN and it is focused at investigating issues around city inclusivity.
Her research and publications record spans the authoring and co-authoring of a number of books, book chapters and peer-reviewed journal articles in both local and international publishing outlets. She recently published a book – Spatial Inequalities in South African Cities: Towards Redistributive Justice, and was awarded funding by the NRF to undertake research on spatial inequality.
