Mbongiseni is a South African scholar, social commentator, and institutional leader who serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the Nelson Mandela Foundation. His career operates at the intersection of public governance, memory studies, and decolonial archive management. He completed his initial degrees at the University of KwaZulu-Natal before earning a Ph.D. in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, where his doctoral research focused on how societies utilize oral histories and historical narratives to make contemporary land and identity claims.
Before taking the helm at the Nelson Mandela Foundation, Buthelezi built an extensive background in academia and civil society research. He worked as a lecturer and senior researcher at the University of Cape Town across the Centre for Law and Society and the Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative. He subsequently served for six years as the Executive Director of the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI), leading data-driven advocacy aimed at improving state capabilities, mapping accountability, and combating systemic corruption. Alongside his administrative commitments, he continues to hold an appointment as an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Development Studies at the University of Johannesburg. His major scholarly contributions include co-editing the volume State Capture in South Africa: How and Why it Happened (2023).