Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh was born on 4 January 1989 and is a South African University lecturer, Podcaster, author, musician and activist.
27 Facts About Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh holds a DPhil in International Relations from the University of Oxford.
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In September 2017, Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh published his debut book, Democracy and Delusion: 10 Myths in South African Politics.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh was born in Johannesburg, the son of a black father and a white mother.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh's parents were politically active in the struggle against apartheid.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh's father is Dali Mpofu a prominent advocate, former SABC CEO and Chairperson of the Economic Freedom Fighters political party.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh's mother is Theresa Oakley-Smith, the daughter of a British diplomat.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh has described himself as "being raised by a single mother".
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh's godfather is former Constitutional Court judge Edwin Cameron.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh's step-mother is Mpumi Mpofu, currently the CEO of the Airports Company of South Africa and previously director general in the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation in the Presidency.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh attended Sacred Heart College and then moved to the elite St John's College.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh was part of the hip-hop group Entity, along with rapper AKA and Nhlanhla Makenna.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh played for the Orlando Pirates Youth Academy between the ages of 13 and 16.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh spent a year living in the rural Eastern Cape village of Qugqwala, before undergoing ritual Xhosa initiation in 2007.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh attended the University of Cape Town, earning an Honours degree in Politics Philosophy and Economics in 2012.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh completed his doctorate in international relations in 2020 at Oxford, with a dissertation on the politics of nuclear-weapon-free zones.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh released a song called "Mr President", criticising then South African President Jacob Zuma for corruption in 2013.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh has written on the subjects of racism and corruption for South African newspaper City Press.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh has been a vocal supporter of free education in South Africa.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh published a chapter on a possible free education model in the book Fees Must Fall: Student Revolt, Decolonisation and Governance Archived 30 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine, published by Wits University Press.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh won the City Press-Tafelberg Award for promising non-fiction for his book Democracy and Delusion: 10 Myths in South African Politics, published in September, 2017.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh started a podcast initiative, SMWX, shortly before the 2019 South African elections with support from the South African Media Innovation Programme, which is funded by George Soros's Open Society Foundation and Pierre Omidyar's Luminate.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh got his first break into radio presenting when he took over the show of his mother's friend, talk show host Eusebius McKaiser, on the private South African radio station 702.
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In 2023 the South African public broadcaster announced Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh had been given a prime time television slot to do interviews on current affairs.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh was part of the Rhodes Must Fall in Oxford campaign, which aimed to highlight alleged institutional racism at Oxford and called for a statue of Cecil Rhodes located on the Oxford High Street to be relocated.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh has received funding for his initiatives from a variety of sources.
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Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh received funding for his podcast initiative, SMWX, from the South African Media Innovation Programme, which is funded by George Soros's Open Society Foundation and Pierre Omidyar's Luminate.