Meet the Team
Dr Ricardo (Ric) Amansure has a diverse educational background. He completed his PhD which focussed on revenue management to beneficiary communities in the renewable energy sector, and has an extensive professional history, including serving as CEO of MercyShips Southern Africa and working as a Corporate Social Responsibility consultant. He has also made notable contributions to the Renewable Energy sector, pioneering innovative approaches in Socio-economic Development, Enterprise Development, and Public-Private Partnerships. He was the Head of Communications, Fund- and Business Development at the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation, overseeing fundraising, business development initiatives, and the organization’s media and branding efforts. He has joined the Centre for Sustainability Transitions as senior researcher.
Field of research
- Sustainable development
- Sustainability transitions
- Renewable energy
- ESG
- Smart cities
Prof Mark Swilling is Distinguished Professor and Co-director of the Centre for Sustainability Transitions. His latest book is The Age of Sustainability: Just Transitions in a Complex World (London and New York: Routledge, 2020). Together with Eve Annecke, he has co-authored, Just Transitions: Explorations of Sustainability in an Unfair World (Tokyo: United Nations University Press, 2012), co-edited with Adriana Allen and Andreas Lampis Untamed Urbanism (New York and London: Routledge, 2016), co-edited with Josephine Musango and Jeremy Wakeford Greening the South African Economy (Cape Town: Juta, 2016) and was the lead author with Ivor Chipkin et. al. of Shadow State: Politics of State Capture (Johannesburg: WITS Press, 2018). He is a member of UNEP’s International Resource Panel where he was the co-lead author of The Weight of Cities: Resource Requirements of Future Urbanization, published in 2018.
Mark was on the Board of the Development Bank of Southern Africa for nine years and until September 2023 where held the position of Chairperson of the Board. The President of South Africa appointed Mark as a member of the National Planning Commission (2022-2027). In 2024. he was appointed to the Board of the National Transmission Company of South Africa. He has been a visiting Professor at the universities of Sheffield and Utrecht, and Georgetown University in Washington D.C, and in 2018 was the Edward P. Bass Visiting Environmental Scholar at Yale University. As of 2023, he published 20 books, 86 book chapters, 66 peer reviewed articles, 56 reports, 143 presentations, 49 major research projects, and supervised 56 Master’s theses and 27 PhDs (six incomplete as of 2023). His private sector roles include Chair of the Board of Ekapa Energy (Pty) Ltd and Chair of the Board of Creation Capital Investments (Pty) Ltd.
Field of research
- Sustainability transitions
- Sustainable cities
- Material flow analysis
- Transdisciplinary research methodologies
- New economic theory
Jabulile Mvubu’s main motivation for transitioning from traditional finance to climate finance is not abstract. It is rooted in watching rural communities, like the one she grew up in, bear the costs of a climate crisis they did not create, while the financial systems that could fund solutions consistently fail to reach them.
She is a climate finance analyst and development finance practitioner working at the intersection of capital mobilisation, monetary architecture, and just energy transitions in African financial systems. She is a Climate Finance Fellow at the Centre for Sustainability Transitions (CST) at Stellenbosch University, supported by the Global Good x Amani Fellowship, where her research contributes to the Centre’s Infrastructure & Development and Green Economy Finance research themes.
Her research examines how domestic and international capital can be more effectively mobilised for climate-resilient infrastructure across African economies, with particular attention to the structural barriers facing African development finance institutions (DFIs) — including governance constraints, risk mispricing in global financial systems, and eligibility gaps in international climate finance frameworks. This work spans a full ecosystem approach, encompassing pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, regional capital markets, and DFIs, and engages directly with the policy and institutional conditions that determine whether climate capital reaches the projects and communities that need it.
Mvubu is currently engaged across three active research projects at CST. The first, funded by the Association for Savings and Investments South Africa in partnership with the National Planning Commission and the Bureau for Economic Research, examines how South African pension fund capital can be directed toward the country’s R400 billion grid transmission programme, with a focus on regulatory reform pathways, the hybrid Independent Transmission Programme model, and catalytic financing structures for climate-aligned infrastructure investment.
The second project analyses Senegal’s monetary architecture and its structural implications for climate and development finance access, examining the web of interlocking balance sheets that shape sovereign debt dynamics and constrain domestic capital mobilisation for the just energy transition. This research is conducted in collaboration with the International Development Economics Association ( IDEAS) in Dakar, with active engagement with senior stakeholders in Senegal’s energy and finance sectors. Mvubu presented this research at the Monetary Architecture Workshop hosted by the Global Climate Forum at the John F. Kennedy Institute, Freie Universität Berlin, in June 2026. The third project involves continental mapping of African DFIs, analysing institutional capacity, governance structures, financial flows, and project readiness to identify systemic constraints and reform entry points, including the development of a climate finance readiness assessment framework and a Climate Finance Eligibility Handbook aligned with international standards.
In addition to her research role, Mvubu was an invited participant at the 35th Meeting of the International Resource Panel Steering Committee, convened by the United Nations Environment Programme Secretariat and the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in Berlin in June 2026. She also participated as an invited expert at the Conference on Senegal’s Debt Crisis, held under the patronage of Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko in Dakar in May 2026.
Prior to joining CST, Mvubu spent over five years in financial markets in South Africa, holding roles as an Investment Consultant, Equity Analyst, and Compliance Associate at IG Group. In these roles she advised retail and institutional clients on multi-asset investment products across equities, exchange-traded funds, foreign exchange, commodities, and derivatives; conducted trade surveillance and market abuse monitoring; and ensured regulatory compliance across three jurisdictions — the Financial Sector Conduct Authority of South Africa, the Financial Conduct Authority of the United Kingdom, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore. This grounding in financial markets practice directly informs her current research into the structural misalignment between global capital allocation mechanisms and the long-horizon financing requirements of African climate infrastructure.
Mlondi Ndovela is a Junior Researcher at the Centre for Sustainability Transitions (CST), at Stellenbosch University, where he is involved in a partnership between the CST, Agence Française de Développement (AFD) Group and Development Bank for Southern Africa (DBSA) to develop a GEMMES-SA, which will be the first non-equilibrium macroeconomic model in South Africa.
Mlondi coordinates a partnership with the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies (CRSES), at Stellenbosch University, which aims to develop a new generation of modelers within the field of energy and non-equilibrium economics. He is also involved in teaching the Financing the Just Energy Transition module which he co-convenes alongside other colleagues at the CST.
Mlondi’s research is predicated on making sense of possible futures, taking into consideration past and present trends. In this way, it provides policymakers with technical support to understand the possible implications of the decisions they make today in the context of energy transition.
Field of research
- Non-equilibrium economics
- Energy transitions
- Macroeconomic implications
- Political economy
Alboricah Tokologo (TK) Rathupetsane is a junior researcher and works on various projects related to Just Transitions and Infrastructure for sustainability. She is the CST-based project manager for the Southern Africa – Towards Inclusive Economic Development (SA – TIED) project in the workstream, Water-Energy-Food in the Context of Climate Change. This initiative is in partnership with National Treasury (NT), the National Planning Commission (NPC), the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) and the Presidential Climate Commission (PCC), and identifies investment requirements for infrastructure in the water, energy and food sectors whilst accounting for climate change impacts. TK supports Prof Mark Swilling in his coordinator role in the NPC’s Finance Task Team. Outside of these, TK’s involvement in Just Transition work is primarily focused on the energy sector. She led the grid expansion leg of the 2023 Just Energy Transition Platform project and is one of the researchers involved in green economy industrialisation, reskilling and employment creation.
TK holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of the Witwatersrand and a Master’s in Sustainable Development from Stellenbosch University. She is an avid creative writer and enjoys writing climate and Africa-focused science fiction. In 2023, she was a guest lecturer for the Sustainable Cities module, Writing the African Future She is a co-founder of the Africa Week Network which convenes local artists and entrepreneurs to connect and start imagining a unified, desirable Africa for all.
Field of research
- Green economy
- Industrialisation
- Green industrial policies
- Green value chains
- Decent work and employment
- Storytelling and Africanfuturism
Merin is a researcher at the Centre for Sustainability Transitions (CST) where she leads the CST Research Programme in Urban Innovation hosted under the SARChI Chair for Mainstreaming Gender for Energy Security in Africa held by Prof Mark Swilling, is the convenor of the Just and Sustainable Urbanisms module in the Postgraduate Diploma in Sustainable Development, and hosts the CST Weekly Colloquium.
Merin thinks deeply about African urban futures through the perspective of infrastructure, finance, and Africanfuturism storytelling, and has structured her PhD and research project to explore vocabulary as an infrastructure for imagination in the pursuit of just and sustainable urban futures.
Her intellectual project is grounded in her advocacy work as Chairperson of the Stellenbosch Homelessness Forum, for which she was awarded the Stellenbosch University Social Impact Award in 2024, and funding for continued collaboration. She represents South African and regional interests internationally as the only steering group member of the Sustainability Transitions Research Network based in Africa, and she pursues art for transformation through writing as co-founder of The Symbiotes writing group and as a convenor of international working groups: the Art-Science Thematic Group 2025 – 2027 within the STRN and Co-imagining resilient and sustainable African futures through arts-based practices 2025 – 2027 within the Southern African Resilience Academy and Society for Social Ecological Systems.
Field of research
- Urban transitions
- Just energy transition
- Just and sustainable futures
- Africanfuturism
- Art and sustainability
Saidou Abdoulaye Sy is an economist working at the intersection of energy, climate, and development, with a focus on macroeconomic policy, structural transformation, and policy modelling. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Centre for Sustainability Transitions at Stellenbosch University, where his research examines economic theories and models related to the co-evolution of financial and energy systems during economic transitions.
He also works as an economist with International Development Economics Associates, leading work on financial architecture, development finance, and sustainable development in Senegal, including engagement with government stakeholders in the energy and finance sectors. In addition, he serves as a consultant with the World Bank, contributing to research on the productive use of electricity across Sub-Saharan Africa, and as Lead Modeller at the Climate Policy Lab, Fletcher School at Tufts University, where he leads energy and climate modeling projects in Brazil and South Africa.
Previously, he was a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Climate Policy Lab, Fletcher School at Tufts University, where he developed energy and climate policy scenarios to inform Nationally Determined Contributions in Mexico and Indonesia. Earlier in his career, he worked with the Central Bank of West African States, the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research, and the Laboratory of Economics of Sustainable Development, Natural Resources, and Agriculture at the Faculty of Economics and Management of Tunis.
Saidou holds a PhD in Economics, a Master’s degree in Quantitative Economics, and a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematical Economics and Econometrics from the University of Tunis El Manar.
Field of research
- Energy Transition and Development
- Macroeconomic Policy and Structural Transformation
- Development Finance and Investment
- Energy–Climate–Economy Modeling
- Political Economy of Sustainable Transitions
John Spiropoulos has a BSc Construction Management (University of the Witwatersrand) and a Masters degree from Hull University (United Kingdom). He also has a PhD in urban economic sociology.
He has over 35 years’ experience in SA urban planning and development as technical specialist, strategy consultant or project manager. He has worked in the non-government sector, at all levels of government – in Provincial Government of Gauteng province, as interim head of department of development planning and public works; in the Department of Trade and Industries as programme manager of the Spatial Development Initiative in Gauteng, and as head of Strategic Projects in the Municipality of Johannesburg. He has experience in the private sector as director and shareholder of an urban management and development consulting company.
He is currently an independent consultant and senior research fellow at University College London (UCL) working on urban infrastructure financing in Sub-Saharan Africa and is contracted by the Centre for Sustainability Transitions (CST) at University of Stellenbosch, working with the African Association of DFIs in Ivory Coast, supporting the development of project preparation capacities in six sub-Saharan African countries.
He has experience in project development phases of urban planning and real estate projects, and in rail and road corridor development in South Africa.
He has diverse experience including coordination of participatory research on community experience of Renewable Energy Independent Power Producers (REIPPP) Social and Economic Development programmes with aim of informing policy change; managed the construction project management of two small enterprise hub in small towns of Sutherland and Laingsburg in two karoo districts, in South Africa. Conducted case study research on impact of electrification and provision of water and sanitation to backyard dwellers on a site in the Cape Flats, Cape Town. And work for the World Bank IFC testing and development of global housing training platform to build business proficiency and design capacity of real estate developers, and for the World Bank in a technical advisory capacity to City Support Programme (CSP) in the South Africa government Treasury. Community development in informal settlement upgrading.
Kgali is an attorney, governance professional, and innovation strategist working at the intersection of intellectual property, technology, sustainable development, and social impact. With more than a decade of experience across corporate and commercial law, public-interest litigation, governance, and multi-stakeholder strategy, she supports organisations and innovators to translate ideas into durable, inclusive value.
She has advised on major corporate restructuring, served in senior governance roles within the development sector, and contributed to human rights and sustainability policy processes involving the United Nations, African Union, and South African government. She is also a Professional Director (PD(SA)) and brings a distinctly African, Ubuntu-centred perspective to questions of law, innovation, sustainability and inclusive growth.