School of Built Environment & Development Studies

Ms Nompumelelo Nzimande-Mbele is a lecturer and demographer in the discipline of Population Studies at the School of Built Environment and Development Studies (SoBEDS) and teaches Demographic Methods (I & II) as well as Migration and Urbanization. She obtained her MA (Sociology/Demography) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and currently a PhD candidate at UKZN. Ms Nzimande’s research interests are in the area of demography of Southern Africa; demographic perspective on family formation, and use of demographic data during policy development and integrated development planning. . She served as the president of the Population Association of Southern Africa (PASA) between 2014 and 2017. PASA is a scientific regional body that that brings together demographers and population scientists and practitioners, policy makers and development partners on Southern African population issues. Since 2014, she represents UKZN in Partners in Population and Development (PPD), which is an inter-governmental organization that promotes South-South cooperation on population and development issues. Ms Nzimande also sits on Statistics South Africa Council (Stats Council), where she chairs the population and social statistics sub-committee. The Stats Council is responsible for the production and use of official statistics in the country. She was recently appointed (2020) by the Statistician General of South Africa, Mr Risenga Maluleke as the Chair of the Census 2021 National Advisory Committee (NAC). The Census 2021 NAC comprises of stakeholders from various entities, including government and private organisations, who will contribute multi-sector expertise and influence to ensure that the upcoming census is effective and efficient at national level to initiate advocacy, educational, and community mobilisation initiatives as Stats SA prepares to conduct the national census. Ms Nzimande has been the director of the Applied Population Studies Training and Research Program (APSTAR) since 2007. APSTAR aim to enhance the understanding of population issues in relation to the broader sphere of development challenges. This programme was carefully constructed by UKZN in partnership with the Department of Social Development (DSD) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in 2001, and is designed for progression in the public sector.  Through this partnership, she has also developed manuals, frameworks, and training programs on the integration of demographic indicators (overall profile, migration and the demographic dividend) into development plans at national and local levels of governance. She currently serves in the steering committee of the National Conference on Migration and Urbanization (26 – 30 July 2021), and is a theme convener for migration policy issues. The conference will see the establishment of a National Forum on Migration, which aims to be the nexus for data producers, researchers and analysts, policy makers and academics across the migration and urbanization sector.