Born and raised in South Africa’s Free State province, Motsoakgomo Papi Nkoli is a qualitative social scientist. His diverse scholarly interests range from social changes, philosophy, politics, and the state to the social role of technologies and data algorithms, the social construction of reality, esoteric psychology, and research methods.

 

He started his career as a transformation officer at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), South Africa, and later worked as a private consultant offering research, renewable energy, and innovation solutions. Motsoakgomo then entered the public service by joining the private office of the President of South Africa, where he conducted various research studies and analyses about domestic, international, political-economic and security matters. He currently serves as a policy and research advisor to South Africa’s Minister of Social Development.

 

Having graduated with a master’s degree from Wits, Motsoakgomo is pursuing another master’s, this time in social sciences (sociology) at the University of Pretoria. In 2011, he also attained a postgraduate diploma in monitoring and evaluation from Stellenbosch University.